Portrait from 2015 exemplifies Nicolas Party’s whimsical, quasi-Surrealist paintings that are driving his meteorically rising profile in the global art scene. With its comic-book graphic strangeness and vivid saturated high contrast palette, Portrait is a fantastical fusion of diverse influences that range from René Magritte, Giorgio de Chirico, Pablo Picasso, Hans Emmeneger, and Alex Katz, to the late Egyptian sarcophaguses where portraits were depicted on coffin exteriors. Most uniquely, Party’s experience of working for a decade as a 3-D animator infuses his paintings with a flat and intensely graphic sharp-edged quality, translating the tradition of portraiture into a wholly contemporary vernacular. By paring down his compositions and stripping his subjects of extraneous details, Party focuses on the interrogation of medium, shape, colour, and composition, building a singular visual lexicon grounded in the act of painting itself and the possibilities of material – that of pastel in particular. Chris Sharratt observed: “Rather than painting portraits of anyone in particular, it’s the materiality of the pastels and their relationship with the paper that this Swiss artist is exploring” (Chris Sharratt, “Nicolas Party”, in Frieze, 4 November 2013).

Born in 1980 in Lausanne, Switzerland, Party studied at the Lausanne School of Art before undertaking an MA at The Glasgow School of Art. Classically trained, Party transforms the paradigm of portraiture of art history into a dialogue with both past and future. Speaking about his figurative paintings, Party remarks: “I’m trying to work with subjects that are not original. Subjects that have been, and still are, painted all the t.mes . Like a portrait, or a cat. What fascinates me about these topics is their capacity to regenerate themselves at any period of history, and still be relevant to us. I also believe some subjects are always painted because they are an infinite source of meaning and inspiration” (the artist cited in Federica Tattoli, “Talking with the Swiss painter Nicolas Party”, Fruit of the Forest, December 2016). Rather than creating portraits from real life, therefore, Party takes inspiration from other portraits in the history of portraiture. Most famously, Party recalls being “totally stunned” upon viewing Picasso’s Tête de Femme (1921) at the Foundation Beyeler in 2013, and claims that the image has been “the source of all the faces I’ve made since” (the artist cited in Dodid Kazanjian, “Party t.mes ”, Vogue, June 2018).

Party was inspired in particular by Picasso’s use of pastel in Tête de Femme, and the challenging and idiosyncratic medium has dominated his work ever since. The artist observes: “Oils allow you to endlessly retouch. With pastels it’s kind of the exact opposite. You can layer and layer, but you can’t start over. The nature of the medium is much more direct. Nothing dries or is wet – it stays exactly how it is” (the artist cited in Ted Loos, “Artist Nicolas Party Revives the Language of Pastel”, Cultured Mag, March 2019). Applying the soft chalk material with his fingertips with painterly precision, pastel best allows Party to mould the essence of his subjects in new and revelatory ways, so as to amplify physical presence and heighten emotional resonance. Party’s resulting works are simple, seductive and highly accessible, yet still engage in dialogue with the art-historical binaries of representation and abstraction, observation and imagination. In addition to paintings, Party creates large-scale public murals, sculptures and installation works that employ colour and intervention strategies to construct immersive experiences for viewers. The artist has been subject of numerous solo exhibitions at prestigious institutions worldwide, including the Magritte Museum, Brussels (2018); Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C. (2017); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2016); and the Modern Institute, Glasgow (2016).

尼古拉・帕爾蒂的《肖像》創作於2015年，作品充滿天馬行空的奇思異想，近乎超現實主義，這些標誌性藝術特質正在推動他成為國際藝壇迅速冒起的新星。《肖像》畫風如漫畫般生動又怪異，色調鮮明飽滿，對比強烈，結合了雷內・馬格利特、喬治・德・基里科、巴布羅・畢加索、漢斯・艾曼奈格和亞歷克斯・卡茲，甚至古埃及石棺上的肖像畫等豐富多元的影響。此外，帕爾蒂擁有十年的三維繪圖師工作經驗，令他的畫作具有平面但輪廓鮮明的質感，為歷史悠久的肖像畫傳統注入嶄新的當代藝術語言。帕爾蒂簡化構圖，去掉畫中人物多餘的細節，集中探討媒材、形狀、顏色和構圖，並且建立起以繪畫動作本身為根基的獨特視覺語言，彰顯媒材——尤其是粉彩的潛質。藝評家克里斯・夏拉特觀察了帕爾蒂多幅肖像作品，評論道：「這位瑞士藝術家並不繪畫某個特定人物的肖像，而是鑽研粉彩的材質特性以及它與紙張的關係」（克里斯・夏拉特，〈尼古拉・帕爾蒂〉，載於《Frieze》，2013年11月4日）。

1980年，帕爾蒂在瑞士洛桑市出生。他曾就讀洛桑藝術學院，及後前往格拉斯哥藝術學院攻讀碩士學位。他有系統地學習過古典藝術，並通過自己的創作，把藝術史裡的肖像畫的固定形式轉化為過去與未來的對話。帕爾蒂談及自己的具象繪畫時說道：「我試著在研究那些非原創的題材，如肖像，或小貓，就是那些從古至今一直都有很多人去畫的題材。我之所以對這些題材感興趣，是因為它們在歷史的任何一段時間都可以重生，並且一直與我們息息相關。另外，我覺得某些題材可以引申出無限的意義和靈感，所以才會一直被畫出來」（引述自藝術家，費德里卡・塔托里撰，〈與瑞士畫家尼古拉・帕爾蒂的對話〉，《森林之果》，2016年12月）。故此，帕爾蒂的肖像作品並非以真實生活為本，而是從歷史上其他作品提取靈感，當中最顯著的例子，是他2013年在貝耶勒基金會美術館看到的畢加索1921年作品《女子頭像》。他回憶起自己當時「完全被震撼了」，並聲稱此畫成為「我以後畫的所有面孔的源頭」（引述自藝術家，多迪・卡扎吉撰，〈Party t.mes 〉，《Vogue》，2018年6月）。

畢加索用粉彩創作了《女子頭像》，對帕爾蒂影響極深。粉彩難以駕馭，但氣質獨特，成為他往後作品的主要媒材。帕爾蒂曾談到：「油彩可以不斷修改，但粉彩恰好相反，雖然可以逐層叠加，但不能再從頭開始；而且它的性質更直接，不會變乾或濕，畫出來是什麼樣，就會保持什麼樣」（引述自藝術家，泰德・魯斯撰，〈藝術家尼古拉・帕爾蒂的粉彩復興〉，《Cultured Mag》，2019年3月）。帕爾蒂用指尖仔細控制軟粉筆，猶如畫筆般準確；粉彩讓他得以用革新的手法展現畫中人的精髓，增強實體的存在感，亦加深情感的共鳴。完成後的作品簡潔單純，親切動人，同時加入了藝術史上各種具象與抽象、觀察與想像的對話。除繪畫以外，帕爾蒂也製作大型公眾壁畫、雕塑和裝置作品，運用色彩和干預策略，為觀者建立融入式藝術體驗。帕爾蒂曾在不少國際知名機構舉辦個展，包括布魯塞爾馬格利特博物館（2018年）、華盛頓赫希洪博物館和雕塑園（2017年）、洛杉磯漢默美術館（2016年），以及格拉斯哥 Modern Institute 畫廊（2016年）。