Whiskey

Immense plains, purple deserts and rocky mountains, the particular geography of the American West has long been a subject that inspires Western artists. From Sergio Leone to Mœbius, the image of this region has gradually been built in popular culture to become a place of adventure and freedom. Bathed since childhood in this representation of a fantasized America, Hugues Micol delivers with Whiskey his own vision of the Wild West. Subtly mixing gouache and watercolor, from a stain on the sheet a mountain, a pebble or a silhouette is born little by little. This spontaneous method in the elaboration of the drawing echoes the allegory of the cowboy, a solitary man who roams a landscape, freeing himself from borders and laws. After Providence – where the action took place each time in a room – Hugues Micol here abandons the partitioned spaces to explore an exterior rich in rockeries and canyons. It is thus part of the tradition of western art, a sub-genre of pictorial art that was very popular in the middle of the 20th century. However, this classicism is diverted here in favor of a more instinctive approach, offering the drawing a rendering close to Cubist works. This gentle melancholy of an era is symbolized by the figure of the cowboy, icon of a world that no longer exists, a kind of ghost crossing the immensity of the desert freed from all constraints.