Dominique Corbasson: Paris-Londres-New York. Huberty & Breyne Gallery. Brussels. March 13-April 18, 2020.
Over the next month, the Huberty & Breyne Gallery is hosting a selling exhibition that doubles as a retrospective of the work of French painter and illustrator Dominique Corbasson, who passed away too soon on 21 February 2018. Though Corbasson illustrated children's books and even produced her own
comic, her international recognition was earned by her uniquely stylized and idealized cityscapes that were often illustrated on paper using pencils or acrylics.
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| The poster image for the Corbasson retrospective. |
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| The basic exhibition information that immediately greets visitors upon entering the gallery. |
The selection of cityscapes for this exhibition were organized across three separate but contiguous rooms within the gallery, with each room displaying the drawings and paintings associated with an assigned city.
Upon entry into the gallery, the exhibition kicks off immediately with the New York pieces.
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| On display to the immediate right of the gallery entrance is this New York Quadtych: (starting top left, clockwise) Noon, Morning, Afternoon, Evening. |
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| The New York pieces at the entryway of the gallery |
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| 432 Park Avenue |
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| Guggenheim I, III, IV |
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| NYC (left) and Fog in New York, displayed |
The largest space located in the center of the gallery was reserved for a nice selection of Corbasson's drawings and paintings on Paris, which arguably represent her most recognizable work. As a native Parisian, Corbasson was familiar enough with these iconic locations that they were typically drawn from the perspective that she saw while riding around the city on her bicycle.
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| The back wall of the Paris room |
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| From top left, clockwise: Esplanade du Louvre; Tenon-Gambetta, Le Carousel, and La Maison Rose. |
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Rue des Perhamps (left) and Pont des Arts sur le Louvre
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The front and right walls of the Paris room
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Place des Vosges (left) and La coulée vert
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| The arrangement of Paris drawings and paintings on the right wall of the Paris room. |
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| The arrangement of Paris drawings and paintings on the front wall of the Paris room. |
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| The left and front walls of the Paris room. |
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| The arrangement of Paris drawings and paintings on the left wall of the Paris room. |
Moving forward from the Paris room opens out towards the back of the gallery where the London pieces are arranged and displayed.
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| Sunny Winter (left) and Savile Row |
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| The passage to the London room as seen from the frontier of the Paris Room. |
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| The front and right walls of the London Room. |
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| These six pieces are acrylic paintings on a wood base. |
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| These six pieces are acrylic paintings on a wood base. |
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| The British Museum |
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| The final London piece: Charing Cross |
The gift shop area (which is located between the New York space and the Paris room) offered signed and numbered seriegraphs and exhibition catalogs for sale. Huberty & Breyne Gallery published their own exhibition catalog, limited to 400 copies, which reproduces all of the pieces on display.
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| The gift shop area at Huberty & Breyne Gallery. |
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| The exhibition catalog (left) and a complete collection of all of Corbasson's Paris work, originally published in 2016. |
The exhibition does a nice job of presenting Corbasson's cityscapes in a fashion that accentuates their individual qualities when they are presented in a cumulative collected fashion. Her expressive use of color coupled with the weight of her crayon lines and brushstrokes really help each piece stand out against the wide open and white walls of the gallery. With spring around the corner, Corbasson's colorful evocations of these idealized cities provide a pleasant distraction from the realities of the city with an effortless simplicity that compliments her legacy.
The
press communique for the show, as well as all of the works on display for
Paris-Londres-New York are available for closer inspection at the website of the Huberty & Breyne Gallery.
-Nick Nguyen
All photos taken by Nick Nguyen
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