The First - Forbidden Reproduction (4) is a work by Belgian artist Julien Delagrange.

This artwork is part of ongoing series of Forbidden Reproductions. The source material is found by manner of visual searches on image databases such as Google images, or Pinterest. With a few artistic interventions, the image is recycled into a unique artwork, questioning and examining simulacra and the flood of images in a day and age in which all images already seem to exist. It argues the culture of appropriation and notions of authorship and imitation in the form of a visual parody of pictures.

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 Perspex frame. Dimensions of the framed artwork: 72 H x 52 L x 2 D cm.