Authouart lithographie Manhattan Colors – Corvette – Warhol

Dimensions:
SUJET : 71,5 X 108 CM ; FEUILLET : 80 X 117 CM • IMAGE : 28 1/8 X 42 1/2 IN. ; SHEET : 31 1/2 X 46 IN.
Notes:
D'après une huile sur toile de l'artiste, intitulée Manhattan colors, de 1998 (collection privée).

"Authouart a nourri son adolescence de bandes dessinées, d'histoires de Peaux-Rouges, de thrillers, de films américains. Aussi n'est-il pas étonnant qu'il (...) laisse la bride sur le cou à une imagination qui a son origine dans une fscination précoce pour l'Amérique. [...]
Dans l'œuvre de Manhattan Colors, figure Jackson Pollock [qui] réalise un dripping à même le trottoir tandis que Beuys, chapeau cabossé et nez de clown, et Warhol, chaussé de lunettes cassées, figurent deux pochards en rade au petit matin."

Manhattan Colors is a depiction of American cinematic, political and art history as if it were a novel or a screenplay. In this picture as in film, as in politics, as in art, as in life, it is often difficult to know where fact ends and fiction begins.
Above the JVC sign, you can see a billboard for the Hitchcock movie, The Birds. The birds seem to fly out of the poster and into reality. To the right of the JVC sign, a screen with red curtains opens up to show Monument Valley with band of cowboys riding out of the valley right into Times Square. The lead cowboy begins a fight with an Indian but neither his bullets nor the Indians arrows will find their mark. The yellow laser inexorably links them as they were throughout early American history. The Indian in Times Square also represents the presence of nature in our cities, as Central Park occupies the Center of our most populace urban center. A boat in the lower left of the images brings immigrants to Ellis Island.
The Indian's horse rides over Jackson Pollack's famous Dripping, which appears as sidewalk graffiti. The young boy, Authouart as a child, is watching Pollack create. One of the red drippings in the Pollack painting is coming from a dead gangster's forehead while his partner - Dick Tracy? - continues to fight with police.
On the far right hand side of the picture, artist Nicky de Saint Phalle is shooting at the Jasper Johns painting above the Coca-Cola sign. The colors dripping from the Johns painting, caused by the shooting, are in fact coloring the Coke sign. In the sixties, Nicky de Saint Phalle created her famous "Masterpieces" in such a manner by shooting balloons filled with paint, above a canvas.
A young woman is kissing the driver of a red Corvette at the focal point of this picture. The young driver, overwhelmed by love, is in danger of running over artists Andy Warhol and Joseph Beuys. And herein lies the real theme to Manhattan Colors - love. Is love more important than art? More important than pursuing the fame and money that comes with success? Authouart's thinking was that if the one thing you remember from this painting is the woman kissing the driver of the Corvette, the painting is a success, a masterpiece. The triumph of love can be seen in many of the details of Manhattan Colors