Fruits, vegetables and other leaves created by Didier Hagège, all seem very fragile. They are shapes without thickness or volume, they are prints, delicately placed at the center of the canvas. Nothing in Hagège’s paintings reminds of the palpable character or of the shininess of the classical still-life. These paintings do not appeal to our senses of taste or smell, or hunger. They appear detached from reality.
As for the artist, he protects his inner garden well, and systematically adds one or several frames where he nests his painting. Of late, Didier Hagège covers the interior frame with a Plexiglass pane, creating another barrier between the viewer and the subject, itself reduced to a meager and frail silhouette.
Cage or altar, is the painting imprisoned in its own universe? Painted or printed, the works of Didier Hagège all share the same character. These works suggest shapes, rather than describe them. Plants, fruits, vegetables, all are uprooted, estranged from their earth, placed unguarded to be admired. They lose their consistency, and sometimes seem to emanate from an eerie golden background.
But life, or more exactly its materiality, however, is not totally absent. The palette of colours (yellow, gold, brown, grey) evokes the dry earth of Africa, an infinite source of inspiration for the artist. Grafted onto an artificial environment, the eggplants, the broccolis or the onions continue to float. They seem to sign the artist’s name, and remind us that each artistic interpretation is some sort of transposition of his view of reality.
ITZAK GOLDBERG