Ortaire de Coupigny: Contemporary Assemblage Echoing German Expressionism

Ortaire de Coupigny’s Expressionism of Emotion brings together painting and sculpture within the industrial frame of a sardine tin. Through vivid color, layered materials, and a charged expressive presence, the work enters into dialogue with the legacy of German Expressionism while remaining rooted in contemporary mixed-media.

Ortaire de Coupigny’s Expressionism of Emotion distills movement, color, and materiality into a striking composition where painting and sculpture converge. Encased within the industrial frame of a sardine tin, the fish’s vibrant, almost theatrical presence transforms the object into a stage. Ortaire de Coupigny’s signature fusion of metal, pigments, wax, and resin gives the piece its layered dynamism. The fish’s iridescent hues recall the intensity of German Expressionist painting, where color is not merely descriptive but emotional.

This piece echoes the raw emotion and psychological intensity found in German Expressionism, particularly in the work of Emil Nolde and Oskar Kokoschka, while also recalling the heightened expressive force of Edvard Munch. Nolde’s saturated, glowing colors, used to evoke inner turmoil, find a parallel in the layered pigments that define the fish’s iridescent body. Kokoschka’s energetic brushwork and dynamic compositions, meanwhile, resonate with the sculptural surface and rich textural depth that animate the piece. Munch’s presence can be felt in the fish’s exaggerated gaze and tense, almost theatrical expression, which give the image a psychological charge that exceeds simple description. Ortaire de Coupigny, however, carries these Expressionist sensibilities into the realm of contemporary mixed-media.

This small-format artwork is on view at Art San Gallery.