Delphine Perlstein

Focus on Delphine Perlstein

Q. Tell us about yourself and how you came to be an artist…
A. As a child, I enjoyed sculpting, dancing, writing, and drawing. I became a legitimate artist as soon as I stopped trying to put myself in a box. Then, I learned that my father was not my biological father, and I started to question my identity. Painting helped me in this process.
Q. Your main character traits ?
A. Obsessive, work addict, insomniac.
Q. What is your creative process?
A. I'm always looking at a lot of pictures and fashion magazines... Photos are just a base to start with, then I make them my own and add some imaginary vocabulary to create my own world.
Q. Your favorite color?
A. Green. In my studio I am surrounded by trees and birds singing. I had a pink period but it’s over. I love all colors.

Q. Are you experiencing any blocks in your practice right now ?
A. No…Every time I am going far away from the studio I come back with a new energy.

$1,700.00

Q. Who are some contemporary art figures who have influenced you the most?
A. I lived in America for a while and I have been influenced by American painters (De Kooning, Hopper, Philip Guston...) then I came back to France and decided to get back to my europeen roots. I am totally in love with Manet and the Impressionists in general. I like a lot of other painters, Munch, David Hockney, Alice Neel, Françoise Petrovitch...

Willem de Kooning, Woman in Landscape III (Femme dans un paysage III), 1968, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Edward Hopper, Nighthawks, 1942 Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Philip Guston, Monument, 1976, Tate Gallery, London

Édouard Manet, The Dead Toreador, 1864, National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C

Edvart Munch, Desire, 1906, Munchmuseet, Oslo

David Hockney, Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire in 2011, 2011, Centre Pompidou, Musée national d’art moderne, Paris

Alice Neel, John, 1962, Xavier Hufkens, Brussels

Françoise Pétrovitch, Étendue, 2022, Semiose, Paris

Q. Why do you paint ?
A. To feel alive.
Q. What you enjoy the most about painting ?
A. Knowing that from nothing something can emerge.
Q. There is always a narrative at play in your paintings, where do you draw inspiration from?
A. I don't need to get on the top of the kilimandjaro to find inspiration. I am more of an introvert interested in the psychology of the characters from her paintings and what they provoke to the viewer.
Q. What is your relationship to romanticism ?
A. My paintings are a pop nod to the work of the 19th century, which evokes romanticism but which also expresses a tender look at the motives of young people very anchored in a contemporary reality with their attitudes, clothes, haircuts. I like to call my work Rock'n Roll romanticism, with young people coming out of a night club, disillusioned, lost, fragile, sometimes arrogant.
Q. If you could have diner with anyone dead or alive?
A. Lady Gaga.