“Claire Tabouret: Au Bois d’Amour” features new works by the French painter, whose practice examines complex representations of identity and sexuality, the nuances of human intimacy, and the nostalgic passing of time. Across two galleries on ICA Miami’s ground floor, Tabouret displays her experimentation with format and technique, showcasing several of her “Fluff” paintings, a set of monoprints, and a unique, artist-designed rug.
Trained at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris, Tabouret often probes the canon of French painting, expanding it with her powers of observation. With “Au Bois d’Amour” the artist engages the legacy of Édouard Vuillard and Les Nabis, a group of late post-Impressionist artists known for their stylized, decorative depictions of nineteenth-century Art Nouveau interiors and verdant landscapes. Drawing from these artists’ tendencies toward abstraction, Tabouret experiments with light, design, and materiality to create an intimate and contemplative domestic space, bringing to her works a twenty-first century sensitivity and perspective.
Inspired specifically by the qualities of immersive depth and materiality in Vuillard’s 1899 monumental, tapestry-like painting First Fruits, Tabouret’s latest paintings employ acrylic paint on plush fabric to create sumptuous depictions of the natural world. Produced by storied rugmaker Odabashian, a newly created tapestry based on Tabouret’s 2021 painting Paysages d’intérieurs (vert) (Interior Landscapes [Green]) utilizes wool and silk to play with texture and color, depicting a lush landscape while at the same time conjuring notions of domesticity. In a suite of ethereal monoprints, Tabouret explores seriality and echoes the studies in printmaking integral to the practice of Les Nabis. Through “Au Bois d’Amour,” Tabouret engages a modernist tradition challenging the boundaries of art and decoration.
