Collage shortcuts

This collage has been lying around for several days.

It's on the red sludge spill in Hungary: a dog stuck in the disaster. I took a Monet (Etretat) to emphasize on the spill, but was perplexed about the continuation of it. The collage itself seemed quite interesting to me, but not collage-like; I mean that there weren’t any fractures or syncopation, just a flat picture. My different attempts in order to change that were not successful at all. Thinking day after day about it, I knew that I had to make a sacrifice: I had to change what I liked most in order to free myself. It was the dog which reminded me of our beloved last dog, a bearded collie. Another collage was hanging around with "flying" footballers which I linked to Signorelli’s Last Judgment in Orvieto

And then suddenly I found another picture of a triumphant footballer - there I had it: The dog was half sacrificed, but the expression was stronger and the whole structure much more interesting. A little retouching and the collage was done.
As for the meaning, I won’t go into moral considerations; I am just questioning myself why the bosses of such companies can act in such ruthless manner. Thinking of the 300x90km oil “cloud «floating in the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico and what the BP managers do, I am just dismayed.

This collage came after some hesitations that I did not take with my camera. The first idea was about a fe-male, with a disproportioned body (cf. the arms). But then I stuck the female body on the sheet and loved the nipple- nose. It reminded me of Velasquez' dwarfs In fact, I already treated this subject years ago:

The differences I see, is
more freedom from the sources. But this is due to the fact that I don't start with a reproduction but with photos and that the reference come during the work;
more boldness in composition - the way I put the pieces together and maybe
more meaning.
My painting is a combination of Velasquez' painting and Dali's figure. My collage has several roots: for ex. to Magritte and his painting "The rape"
, to the truncated hands in the Velasquez, the way Picasso made variations on famous paintings etc. But the collage stands for itself, I hope - it's only the cream on the apple pie.

These days I am preparing my exhibition in Geneva, starting on November 13th, and I am choosing the collages to be shown. I noticed an new tendency in them: some are more flashy and pop-like. So I intend to push this genre a little further, without redoing what has been done before by Warhol and followers. Visiting the museum of modern art in Nice, mostly dedicated to the "Ecole de Nice" (Arman, Christo etc.), I felt that most of these works have become old and without much interest except for history of art studies. When I make a "poppy" collage, I have to flatten the space of the picture; I sacrifice depth and play with pictorial codes and color. I wonder if this shallowness means a loss of meaning too. Looking at Warhols, I feel this loss while I am attracted by the pure presence of it. It is there, it doesn't refer to any picture safe to itself. Another point is the absence of lightening; these pictures look overexposed . That is their strength - they behave like a fetish. Whereas my collages want to tell a story, make hints to other paintings or photos; be there just to make the onlooker think about other pictures. It's the essence of collage, I believe.
This collage started as usual with the deformation of a tennis champion. In fact, I was attracted by the violent expression of the picture.




At this point, I was already drifting towards pop.

My Popstar became an idol on a pedestal. The picutre was interesting, but the tennis racket had nothing to do here. As one says in French : Aux grands maux les grands remèdes, I decided an important change.
Here it is: