The Quistrebert brothers assume Cleon Peterson’s mantle
Gitana 17 was sublimated by the warrior lines created by Cleon Peterson. To mark a new stage as well as provide a fresh take on contemporary painting and propel Gitana 18 forward into a new dimension, Ariane de Rothschild has selected a dynamic duo: Florian and Michael Quistrebert stand out for their kinetic relationship with material.
Florian and Michael Quistrebert have been working together since they graduated from Nantes art college in 2007 and they are often nicknamed the ‘Brothers of the Shadow’, the title of an exhibition in New York in 2010. Navigating a course via series (and zigzags) like a rock group preparing its albums and tours, these alchemist painters have their own take on reactivating an element of the 20th century modernity they synthetise, twist or distort. These ‘anti-brothers’ of Lumière are continuously shaking up the codes of Fine Arts to manipulate our meaning and open new doors of perception.
Figures from the French stage, nominated for the Prix Marcel Duchamp in 2014, Florian and Michael Quistrebert have regularly exhibited across France and internationally from the Centre Pompidou to the Grand Palais, the CCCOD in Tours, Dundee Contemporary Arts in Scotland, Singer Laren Museum in the Netherlands, Beijing’s Guardian Art Center and Istanbul’s DIRIMART…
A new identity, a pronounced ambition
Gitana 18 is finally revealing her outline together with her adornment created by the Quistrebert brothers. A painting spanning nearly 2,000 m2 across the hulls and sails: a seemingly minimalist yet mesmerizingly complex fresco, added dot by dot like a protective tattoo inlaid into the carbon skin.
Five faces, inspired by Ariane de Rothschild and her four daughters – Noémie, Alice, Ève and Olivia – emerging from the ocean, sculpted in chiaroscuro. A virtually abstract aesthetic, with sfumato shading, designed to embrace the wind and force curves. More than a painting: a kinetic mythology. The blue and yellow, Gitana’s emblematic colours for decades, blend into the black carbon and raw materials favoured for their weight-saving qualities and enable a crossover between beauty and performance. A living work, activated by the elements. An artistic signature for a maxi-trimaran fully geared towards flight.
Jean-Baptiste Epron for the production and Gitana Team for the realisation
Whether it is in the architectural design or the graphic realisation, Gitana 18 is the result of a remarkable group effort combining art and technological prowess. Complementing the four-handed work by the Quistrebert brothers is the expertise and aesthetic of Jean-Baptiste Epron who needs no introduction in the domain of offshore racing. Like a director, the graphic designer has worked with the artists using their original designs to adapt them to the constraints of the subject, as well as to the implementation requirements of a race boat like the Maxi Edmond de Rothschild.
Like the large Renaissance yards where the hand of the painter combined with that of the architect, engineer and mathematician, Gitana 18’s ornamentation is borne from an augmented studio where art confronts the laws of the wind and force curves.
Verbatim
Florian and Michael Quistrebert, artists
“Having the opportunity to express ourselves on a medium like this is both unprecedented and remarkable. We wanted to give these five profiles in our composition a virtually abstract aesthetic with Art Deco vibes to accentuate the conquering, Olympian, or even Amazonian outline. This also echoes our recent series of aero-cubist portraits. For Gitana 18, we’ve created these five faces emerging from the waves, modelled in chiaroscuro. The shading, which is omnipresent in our work, is both sfumato and a medium for relief: one shape can fade into another in the same way as one shade can fade into the other. In this way, whilst respecting the constraint of pure black and white, we’ve designed a halftone pattern of white dots on a black background, playing on the way they vary in size to create volume and light.”