Cannes - Contemporary Artist Richard Zarzi honors Festival President, Robert de Niro with Artwork

May 22, 2011 - PRLog -- Richard Zarzi uses his extensive knowledge of the fashion and marketing industries to warp the familiar popular iconic images we find in the glossy magazines into contemporary art.  At this year’s Cannes Film Festival his work based on the 1976 Palm D’or Film Festival Winner, Taxi Driver, Richard takes an Iconic image of the great actor Robert De Niro and actress Jodie Foster as a young girl and forms a birds eye view shot of one eye perspective from De Niro, on an innocent Foster, wearing shorts, and a hat in a provocative “Lolita” manner. Embellished with the Palm D’or logo, and encased in a circle, Zarzi feels his presentation to President Robert d e Niro will make a timely presentation to the new President of the Film Festival. His goal? To raise money for  the Charity www.oceana.org, by getting the great De Niro to sign it, and showcase during a silent online Auction as part of the FashionTV Live ModelSearch Grand Finale taking place tomorrow night at the Majestic Hotel, Cannes from 6.00 pm- 12 midnight.

Zarzi is far removed from the self-absorbed artist and he strives to create a bridge that allows the amateur art lover and collector into his world. An artistic work which denounces the marketing that feeds our desires and pushes us to spend more. Nothing predestined this child of the French Riviera to an artistic career. Businessman at heart, Richard has long put his talents into the fashion world. After moving to London, he quickly made his way through the ranks of major retailers, from Etro to Dior, Bottega Veneta, Nicole Farhi, Gucci, Chanel, and even Savile Row. A major change has occurred at this period, the fate of a spirit. An artistic awareness which was the culmination of a long spiritual quest that Richard led in parallel, studying religions and mysticism in all its forms. His quest took a new turn when Richard received a simple gift, some brushes and tubes of paint. But from his first contact with the canvas was born a certainty: art is a form of spirituality. From this point forth, Zarzi has never stopped developing his art, using the canvas as a medium of expression for all his many deep emotions. From the religious icon to the marketing icon Inspired by Kandinsky, his early works evoke that inner light that the artist sees in all of us.
In 2009, following the precepts of the Russian painter, Richard chose to adapt his art to our time. “I realized that today’s mass culture is nothing but marketing and, finally, the ‘great culture’ is only available to a minority.” And what is popular and accessible nowadays? These icons of modern times that captivate us. Richard projects their images on canvas, crowned with a halo of light and material. The light that surrounds those whom we call stars and that we could translate as charisma.

The artist denounces these icons as an object of manipulation conveying the idea that happiness is in possession and fame. The material surrounds the image like the body contains the spirit. This relationship between image and substance, between the speakable and the unspeakable is an innovative visual contrast that Richard lets evolve in wills of his inspiration. “All work must convey a message” His work has several levels of interpretation. At first one only notices the icon, Kate Moss, Madonna or Angelina Jolie and the printing of their best pictures issued in a Vogue or a Vanity Fair. Then the light catches your attention, the white light of silver or the golden light of the sun. But we must see beyond the works, these representations of a collective unconscious that the artist makes evolve. This something that already existed, the creator injects a bit of himself in order to get the perfect balance between a commercial art and a critical art. And it’s probably this fragile balance which makes Richard Zarzi’s paintings so exciting. Whether in Cannes, which he considers home, in Paris or London where the galleries represent him, the work of Richard seduces and his audience widens as his art evolves, matures, and adapts itself to this world in constant motion.  "The real art elevates the conscience,” says Richard. No doubt his art elevates itself from his first showroom to his last exhibition, taking with him the awareness of those who are willing to invest in an art as timeless as the icons it represents.

For a Private Viewing and to attend the Reception at Le Petite Maison, Majestic Hotel, Cannes May 20th, Majestic Hotel Contact press@stylezonetv.com