As swan songs go, Delhomme’s considerable part in transforming that corner of 77th and Madison into the most glamorous spot to preen, prep, and pre-game every First Monday in May, is a pretty fine one. The Mark was among the last of his advertising and brand identity projects before he turned his focus to painting full-time.
From the start of his career in the 1980s, commissions for posters, illustrations, and fashion editorials took the Nanterre-born artist everywhere from the US to Japan and England. “It was a bit like being a fashion photographer. If you’re a fashion photographer, you don’t stay home. It was very much fueled by this idea of not staying in my studio,” he says.
Things changed, however, in 2020, when the pandemic made travel between Brooklyn, where Delhomme had a studio, and France difficult. It was then, he says, that he began to prioritize his painting practice.
Since 2021, Delhomme has averaged one solo exhibition per year with Perrotin, focusing on portrayals of landscapes, still lifes, and people with an almost journalistic eye and intent, often returning to the metaphor of photography to describe his practice. This is perhaps most apparent in “Model Resting,” his 2024 solo show at Perrotin Paris that sought to capture his sitters’ individuality in moments of repose.
“With what I’m doing now, I’m asking people I paint to come to the studio wearing their own clothes. They might have something fashionable [on], but I’m not looking for that at all. I’m just looking for them to be real as they are, not posing, just being themselves,” he says. “It’s really about a moment of truth, in a way.”
At present, his work is featured in two group exhibitions—“A Century of Chess” at Perrotin’s Paris gallery, and an ensemble show at Perrotin Matignon—before he ramps up for a summer that will see him stage a solo show at the Tokyo department store Isetan Mitsukoshi, followed by a solo show in September at Perrotin Shanghai.