Medici Villa (Rome, Italy)
French Academy in Rome

Open letter to Villa Medici, Academy of France in Rome.

Paris, March 8, 2006.

David Boulanger wishes to be a boarder of the Academy of France in Rome. It seems to me that his desire justifies his ambition. And this perfectly.

For several years, it has been given me to follow the evolution of this young painter […]

Rarely have I been able to observe and verify that the relationship he establishes with the arts is of the order of a “pictorial consciousness”. Convinced (and why would it not be and why it would be forbidden to be ?) That painting continues to be a perfectly contemporary technique, he dares to take the risk of breaking with the conformism … of the rupture . This is the reason why, for several months for example, he has chosen to confront the work of Rembrandt. The relation he has with such a “master” is, it seems to me, of the same order as that which Cezanne maintained with the Louvre, from the desire to burn him to daily confrontation. Respect for the works of the past intertwines and merges with the need to betray them.

I do not doubt that a long stay at Villa Medici can be decisive for him. The justifications he gives himself to justify such a stay are the most relevant.

I want to hope that this opportunity will be offered to him.

Pascal Bonafoux

Pascal Bonafoux is a writer, art historian, lecturer and curator.

Pascal Bonafoux, born in Paris in 1949, is a writer and historian of French art. Author of numerous essays devoted to art and boarder of the Academy of France in Rome in 1980 and 1981, he collaborates in various newspapers and magazines. Wikipédia

The Medici villa is a palace located on Mount Pincio in Rome. Since 1803, it hosts the Academy of France in Rome. Wikipédia

Medici Villa
Viale della Trinità dei Monti, 1,
00187 Roma RM, Italy