Portrait of the Sulphur woman

This portrait was painted by Thibaud Tchertchian in a series called "My Contribution to chaos". About this painting Thibaud wrote: "It's a portrait of the year 2020. Sulfure is the bewitching and singular portrait of a woman with a mottled black face and red hair. It falls within the recurring themes of my work, that of defining the norm of contemporary society by defining its limits: the abnormal. In the Middle Ages, evil could be painted in the guise of women or creatures with black (or dark) and red skin, spotted (related to venereal diseases) and mismatched or yellow eyes. Movements of identity claims and demands for access to just civil rights such as Black Live Matters and Me Too have marked recent times. But these impulses never converged. They may have even helped to reinforce a now Trumpist identity that sees itself as more legitimate than another: a narrow standard. If the internet was part of the creation of this radical report of mistrust of the other, there is no doubt that the pandemic will accentuate it further. This portrait invites a long gaze on a strange or foreign face to overcome rejection, create empathy and capture its beauty. Sulfide forms rocks as well as metals, bacteria and the purple aromas of wine. Here, behind a Salem witch hides the hypnotic beauty of a sulphurous goddess, a figure as timeless as a portrait of our time."