Maëlle Galerie presents Ernest Breleur’s “Mythologie de la lune, 1989-2022,” opening on Sunday, November 6, at 8 :00am (EST). Maëlle Galerie is located at 29 rue de la commune de Paris, in Romainville, France.

Maëlle Galerie, which has devoted itself for 10 years to defending the sculptural and radiographic work of Ernest Breleur, is pleased to present, for the first time, pictorial works by the artist prior to 1992.

It is precisely the period of 1989—with the series Mythologie de la lune—that will be highlighted. Preparatory sketches from the period, found and never executed, revived the artist and precipitated this new, previously unshown series produced 33 years later.

On December 24, 1992, Milan Kundera wrote: “In all of Breleur’s paintings, the moon, in the shape of a crescent, is in the horizontal position, with its two ends pointing upwards, like a gondola floating on the waves of the night. It is not a fantasy of the painter; in reality, such is the moon in Martinique. In Europe, the crescent is upright: combative, like a fierce little animal that is crouched, ready to jump, or, if you prefer, like a sickle, a perfectly sharp sickle; the moon in Europe is the moon of war. In Martinique, it is peaceful. Perhaps this is why Ernest gave it the warm, golden color; in his mythical paintings, she represents an inaccessible happiness. Bizarre: I speak about it with a few Martinicans and I see that they don’t know the look of the moon in the sky. I ask Europeans: do you remember the moon in Europe? What is its form when it arrives, what is its form when it leaves? (…) Man no longer looks up in the sky, this old-fashioned ornament that, surely, we will one day replace with something more practical and fun.

Abandoned, the moon descends on Breleur’s paintings. But those who no longer see it in the sky will not see it in the paintings either. For those who lose a sense of reality simultaneously lose a sense of art. You are the only Ernest. Alone like Martinique in the middle of the waters. Alone like a painting by Van Gogh under the stupid gaze of tourists. Alone like the art that gets lost in the future where the misomuses reign. Alone like the moon that no one sees.”

Excerpts translated by Ivette Romero. For full description (in French), see http://www.maellegalerie.com/en/mythologie-de-la-lune-1989-2022-3/

[Ernest Breleur, « Untitled, » from the series Mythologie de la lune, 1989-2022, acrylic on canvas, 142,5 x 112,5 cm, courtesy of Maëlle Galerie, copyright Jean-Philippe Breleur.]