<Les Écrans du soleil>

The seaside is a recurring theme in the work of the Italian painter Leonardo Cremonini. In his paintings, flesh, rendered with a very thin layer of paint and acid colours, seems to liquefy in the sweltering summer heat. As a distant heir to Italian metaphysical painting, the artist lends an existential dimension to the inertia of the vacationers. In the centre of the lower part of this rigorously constructed image, a child holds a pair of glasses as if to offer them to the spectators, while all the adults have their eyes closed. The presence of this childlike figure lends this dazzling composition a melancholy quality.