This exhibition starts from a laudable intention in these difficult times: to expose joy as today's artists can show it, to draw a figure for it. Joy which is happiness, of course, but not only that. Also included is the joy that beauty provides, that which gives our bodies good health, mudita, again, this benevolent joy which makes us feel happy for the happiness of others, without forgetting the evil joy, Schadenfreude , which encourages us to chuckle at the misfortune of our fellow human beings. How does the artist represent joy? The effervescent expression, the most logical of all, is not inevitably included. Joy, a state of separation from the seriousness and tragedy of the human condition, is a complex emotion. More fleeting than lasting, always precarious (ultimately, death), she appears as a variously discreet and helpful companion. The joyful feeling comes at its own time and intimately in the form of a fragile, eclipsing blessing, difficult to remember, to box away, to freeze. The artists contributing to this exhibition, for the most part, have the cult of modest joy, saving but quick to slip through the fingers, vector of a never-attested and solid eudaimonism. When others, less numerous, arouse our good humor, taking the side of laughter and relaxation.
- Paul Ardenne