Mademoiselle Courtillot

Photo courtesy Tilton Gallery

Delphine Courtillot, "E or R" (2006)

Photo courtesy Tilton Gallery

Delphine Courtillot, "Prehistory" (2007)

Delphine Courtillot

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Courtillot makes enigmatic medium-scale gouache paintings based on her own carefully staged photographs. “I go on expeditions at night,” she said, “and the photographs have a very strong performance character.”

Her work seems enchanted with the unsettling aura that can be given to an image by the instant of flash photography at night, where bleached-out overexposure is contrasted with dark shadowy depths. A similar fascination informs her subject matter as well. Aiming for the dramatic split-second when everything can be turned on its head, her work captures “a flash of memory.” "One moment something is normal,” she said. “The next moment, it’s a catastrophe.”

There is something genuinely scary about these pictures, and in pieces such as Magnetic and The Scream (both 2006) the solitary protagonist, who in this case is “performed” by Courtillot herself, seems frighteningly vulnerable. “I try to paint something mysterious,” she explained, adding, almost unnecessarily, “They are connected with the world of dreams and the subconscious.”

Still, there is a whole other dimension that is added to Courtillot’s pictures by the way she translates photograph into paint. Her rendering of the photographic image is virtuosic. At close range, her brush marks and drawing seem crude, but when you stand back to take in the whole picture, the effect is utterly convincing. Hers are remarkable pictures, and they quickly sold out following the exhibition opening.

I suggested to Courtillot that perhaps there is something contradictory about her work. While the photographs are made in a microsecond and her subject matter deals with climactic moments, her process of painting actually takes days and sometimes weeks.

“Yes,” she said, “it’s quite obsessive work. It’s labor intensive. It’s tedious, painting in all that grass.”

Then she wondered out loud, “Why is it so important that I spend so much time and energy painting it in such detail?”

An excellent question, it seemed to me. “Well, what’s the answer?” I asked.

“I’m not giving it to you!” she laughed, and strode off. Mysterious to the end.

The work of Delphine Courtillot is on view at Jack Tilton Gallery (8 E. 76th St.; www.jacktiltongallery.com) through May 5, 2007.