Frédéric Clavère's 'Le Roi, roi' at Galerie Athanor, Marseille

Frédéric Clavère's exhibition 'Le Roi, roi' at Galerie Athanor in Marseille (May 18–June 30, 2001) presents a body of work steeped in references to Flemish primitives and Belgian realism. His 'cultivated painting' engages the intellect through a heterogeneous library of sources, yet aims for universal imagery that blends alchemy, irony, and derision. Recurring motifs include his own naked body, depicted with crude ordinariness, contrasting with consumerist triumphalism. The show continues a danse macabre built from a personal image catalog, while drawings expand a bestiary of chimeras. An installation on the upper floor gives the exhibition its title: a naked king drinking between a throne, a coffin, paintings, drawings, and a sword-scepter, reducing painting to an accessory in human rituals of recognition and death. The text by Frédérique Entrialgo draws parallels to Grünewald's awkward nudes and references Buñuel's 'Un chien andalou' to describe the retinal threat in Clavère's work.