Portrait d'Andy Warhol. Photographie Originale tirée par l'artiste.

Portrait of Andy Warhol. Original photograph printed by the artist Large original photograph portrait in black and white, made and printed by Marc Trivier. Unsigned silver print, as most of Trivier's works. Unique print from the artist. Small stain on the upper margin.
Artists, madmen, abattoirs, trees – Marc Trivier photographed each of his subjects with the same interrogative intensity. All his photographs are in the same square format, simple and confined, with no retouching or alteration of the framing, and seem less to show off a subject – famous or unknown, in or out of power, dead or alive – than to seek out a presence.
“Thirty-five years of photographic practice, obsessions, this is maybe what remains; a singular recording mode of light burning, from one picture to the other, in a series of proposals looking alike, though each one as singular as the fraction of time it refers to” (Marc Trivier).
Marc Trivier takes facial photographs of figures from the eighties. The subject looks right into the lens. These are not portrait star photographs, but they are the result of a will of desacralisation:
“Instead of being a writer's or artists' portraitist among many others, he marginalises himself with his device: under the pretext of settings, he keeps his models waiting, he makes them pose several minutes, which gives them a worn look. Maybe he expects a more natural attitude. Here is Francis Bacon in a delicate balance, Samuel Beckett, Jean Dubuffet or even Michel Foucault, more or less sagged back in their chairs. Intimate pictures.” (“Picture of tiredness at Marc Trivier's”, S. Rousselle-Tellier, in Marges, 2004).
Most of the time photographed in their personal space, the subjects loosen up, no longer mastering their image. The resulting unbalance reveals these figures' frailties and allows Trivier to render the unity of the intimate body and the public artworks.
“I was reading Genet; to me, Genet was letters in a book. And then one day I saw his portrait, and there was like a rupture. How could it be possible that these signs were also somebody? Making a portrait is reuniting the name and the face” (Marc Trivier).
Many items seem to oppose Warhol and Trivier. Andy Warhol is the artist of the multiple. His art was born from the metamorphosis of the consumerist artificial and mocks the proliferation of the identical. Marc Trivier is an adept of rarity, and each one of his photographs comes down to some rare prints, all differing in time and the artist's prints. Andy Warhol knows the importance of image, which even ends up replacing the individual. He knows people play roles and this is the image he captures. His various series on Elvis Presley, Marilyn Monroe or Mao show the transition to the icon status which makes these human beings immortal, and destroys their humanity to change them into pieces of art. On the other hand, Trivier's photographs strengthen the presence of an unwieldy body the artist cannot get rid of, an obstacle to sacralisation.
Warhol's known photographic clichés, faithful to his spirit, represent him either as a rock star, proudly wearing his perfecto and sunglasses as his protégé Lou Reed, or as an eccentric artist with his tousled hair, or simulating a boxing match against Basquiat. Each one of his photographs is a clever exposure of his character, pushed to excess, image of his own image, which the modern icon master fully controls.
Warhol's photography made by Marc Trivier shows a complete different person. Unbalanced by a slight low-angle view, projected on a black canvas behind him, cutting out the scene in a triptych, Andy Warhol's body seems to emerge from this dark background, whereas his legs and heavy boots, slightly oversized by the shooting, take pride of place in the foreground.
Surprised by the lengthy wait Trivier imposes to his models, Andy Warhol surprisingly stares at the viewer, as if he were caught in the act of idleness. This feeling is enhanced by the artist's crossed fingers.
Unique portrait of an artist who wanted “to be plastic” and who reveals through Trivier's eye his part of intimacy and fragile humanity of a body without artifice.