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FIRELEI BÁEZ, Madeleine (Rupture rapture maroonage), 2022

Madeleine (Rupture rapture maroonage), 2022

Oil and acrylic on canvas panel
113 1/2 x 78 in.
288.3 x 198.1 cm
$ 300,000.00
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This visually arresting work by Firelei Báez is a reference to Marie-Guillemine Benoist’s 1800 'Portrait of Madeleine', formerly known as Portrait of a Negress. Benoist’s painting depicts a young unnamed...
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This visually arresting work by Firelei Báez is a reference to Marie-Guillemine Benoist’s 1800 "Portrait of Madeleine", formerly known as Portrait of a Negress. Benoist’s painting depicts a young unnamed black woman painted in the neoclassical style with her breast exposed, echoing Delacroix’s depiction of “Liberty Leading the People” (1830). For Báez, there is an inherent tension to this historical reference, between blackness and freedom. In Báez’s reimagined depiction, she seeks to look beyond the culturally prescribed symbols that bind our perception of self and the other, instead choosing to look toward transcendence and true interior release.

Within the world of this painting, the point of transcendence emanates from the center of the arched panel, itself like a portal to another realm. The luminous streams of rich impasto paint radiate outward, like the physical manifestation of enlightenment or inner peace, masking the portrait beneath it. In this way, Báez's painterly intervention seeks to undo the signifiers of race, gender, or class, imagining the infinite possibilities of perception should we only look within.
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Exhibitions

James Cohan Tribeca, Americananana, October 27 – December 21, 2022


James Cohan Tribeca, Americananana, October 27 – December 21, 2022


Firelei Báez, ICA Boston, Boston, MA, April 4 – September 2, 2024
Firelei Báez, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, CA, November 3, 2024 – March 16, 2025
Firelei Báez, Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA, June 14, 2025—September 21 2025 (forthcoming)
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