Paralipsis

Overview

"They are flowers, but they are not flowers (even if they are still flowers). This is how we could define, simplifying it, the scholarly and mysterious title given by Ross Bleckner to his latest series: Paralipsis. This rhetorical title in fact designates a proposed subject (here flowers) whilst denying it, or more broadly is the device by which an idea is underlined by the pretext that it is too obvious to discuss. What could be more obvious than a flower! “The rose is without ‘why’, it flowers because it blooms, has no care for itself, does not ask to be looked at”, said the mystic Angelus Silesius. Above all it is a recurring motif charged with multiple meanings, as much throughout the history of painting, as in the artist’s work. "

- Excerpt from text written by Marie-Laure Bernadac for the exhibition catalogue.