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Andrew Lewis, Points de vues, 2003
Andrew Lewis, Maison coloniale du sud des Etats-Unis, 2003, charcoal pencil on paper, 120 x 80 cm (47 1/4 x 31 1/2 in.)

Andrew Lewis drew ‘Points de vue’ in charcoal on paper, introducing characters with recurring attitudes in landscapes elaborated from well-known architectural typologies and monuments. His drawings were made from a book for children to learn how to draw buildings according to standard models. They represent a place that is both real and imaginary, where the architectures are isolated and even highlighted by all sorts of processes borrowed from the photographic shot. If the image, travel, photography, the tourist cliché and the postcard seem to be at the heart of the artist’s preoccupations, the strength of his drawings does not only come from that. Under their sometimes naive features, they create a system of scripted signs (solitudes, passages, wanderings) that are repeated like a kind of ritual, inducing a lack of communication or simply of exchange between people, which generally results in an enigmatic and uncomfortable situation for the viewer.

Text: Points de vues, Musée d’art contemporain de la Haute-Vienne/FR, March 6 – June 19 2005.