Art Story

"L'oubli et la forêt" is part of a poetic four part series in which a tree, a forest, a cave, and finally a face follow one another - like stages in an inner journey. In this painting, the forest takes center stage, not as a site of action, but as a space of silence, loss, and invisibility. Luis Pôlet draws inspiration from Rubens' "The Hunt of Meleager and Atlanta" (1616-1620), which he fully deconstructs. The dramatic force of the myth gives way to emptiness: a clearing in the image where the gaze can wander. No struggle, no climax - only a silence that breathes. Rimbauds's poem "Le Dormeur du val" (1870) also resonates here: an illusion of beauty that subtly conceals reality. The artist shows that to see is also to accept that not everything can be seen. Pôlet does not assign a fixed meaning to this work. He suggests multiple readings - all shaped by time, loss, and what only reveals itself in hindsight. It is an invitation to slow down, to see differently, and to let go of certainties.