Eve is a work by Belgian artist Julien Delagrange from a series inspired by the work of Pina Bausch.

Pina Bausch (1940 - 2009) was a German dancer and choreographer, considered one of the leading figures in contemporary dance. In 1975, she choreographed The Rite of Spring, a ballet composed by Igor Stravinsky featuring a pagan rite in which a young virgin dances to her death, sacrificed to the god of Spring. The artist was deeply moved by this choreography, defining the experience as sublime, overwhelming and not fully comprehensible: "I felt connected to their primitive movements, intrigued by the underlying meaning and possible analogies for interpretation, humbled by the power and sheer force." He then decided to pay tribute to this performance with a series of artworks. He collects all the images he finds related to the performance to build a visual archive of poses and figures, which he then uses to construct his compositions.

The composition of the artwork crops and cuts a figure of The Rite of Spring choreography by Pina Bausch. The pose and lighting refer to the depiction of Eve in art history, hence it’s title. With this series, the artist examines universal themes such as the universal man, the squalor of sin, syncretism between primitive rites and Christian iconography and its relation with art history and the visual decorum.

Charcoal is particularly appreciated by the artist for its simplicity: with a single colour, it is possible to obtain a myriad of different tones. Julien Delagrange composes his works by adding thin layers of charcoal dust worked with a large soft brush, and removing the material with an eraser to create light. When viewed up close, the paintings show every detail of tone and form. From a distance, the image is almost photorealistic. What Julien Delagrange appreciates most about charcoal, however, is the connection that is created between the raw material, charcoal, and the main theme of his work, the primitive nature of the human being.

Belgian artist Julien Delagrange's oil paintings and charcoal drawings explore the human condition and experience from a universal, contemporary and anthropological perspective. His purely figurative language adapts to the concepts he wishes to examine in his works: metaphysics, existentialism, (post)modernism, spirituality, and syncretism. His intellectual work as an art critic and his artistic practice as a painter are intertwined, each influencing and feeding the other.

The artwork is framed with a black aluminum glass frame. Dimensions of the framed artwork: 42 H x 32 L x 2 D cm.