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CYNTHIA DAIGNAULT

The Lemon

Night Gallery is pleased to announce The Lemon, an exhibition of new paintings by Cynthia Daignault. This is Daignault’s second solo show with the gallery, following Elegy (2019).

Installation view of Cynthia Daignault’s exhibition “The Lemon” at Night Gallery

Cynthia Daignault, The Lemon, installation view, 2024

A painting of 33 of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's most acclaimed works in their collection arranged in a nonuniform grid.

Cynthia Daignault, The Collection, 2024

Detail of Cynthia Daignault's "The Collection" featuring her recreations of Rembrandt, Valesquez, Ingres and Matisse works.

Cynthia Daignault, The Collection, detail, 2024

Daignault is a painter of life. She depicts the natural world around her, but also the photographs, documents, and screens that permeate everyday life. On November 23, concurrently with The Lemon, she will debut a new commission of paintings in the group show Ordinary People: Photorealism and the Work of Art since 1968 at The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA) Los Angeles, organized by Anna Katz, Senior Curator, with Paula Kroll, Curatorial Assistant. For that show, Daignault presents a monumental 486-panel artwork, Twenty-Six Seconds, that reconsiders each frame of the Zapruder film, the home-movie that captured the assassination of John F. Kennedy in 1963. Both exhibitions continue and deepen Daignault’s interest in history painting, exploring how images and media shape our shared consciousness.

Installation view of Cynthia Daignault’s exhibition “The Lemon” at Night Gallery

Cynthia Daignault, The Lemon, installation view, 2024

A painting of a white wall with a recreation of Édouard Manet's "Le Citron" in a gilded frame in the center.

Cynthia Daignault, The Lemon, 2024

Installation view of Cynthia Daignault’s exhibition “The Lemon” at Night Gallery

Cynthia Daignault, The Lemon, installation view, 2024

Detail of Cynthia Daignault's "The Lemon", 2024

Cynthia Daignault, The Lemon, detail, 2024

Installation view of Cynthia Daignault’s exhibition “The Lemon” at Night Gallery

Cynthia Daignault, The Lemon, installation view, 2024

A diptych of two recreations of Édouard Manet's painting "Spring" which depicts a woman surrounded by green and blue fauna carrying a parasol.

Cynthia Daignault, The Springtime, 2024

Detail of a woman's face in Cynthia's Daignault's "The Springtime"

Cynthia Daignault, The Springtime, detail, 2024

Installation view of Cynthia Daignault’s exhibition “The Lemon” at Night Gallery

Cynthia Daignault, The Lemon, installation view, 2024

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The Lemon takes its name from Le Citron, a still-life of a lemon on a dark plate, painted by Édouard Manet in 1880. I’ve come to feel that the act of painting is like walking in a heavy snow. At times I am by myself. The path is so quiet, cumbersome and lonely. But at other times, I find a line of footprints in the snow and walk for a while inside the indentations of someone else’s shoes. Like this, I accidentally run into other painters when I’m working. I see traces of them in a brushstroke, a color, or an idea. Or I purposefully go after them in copies and allusions, trying to commune with them. In truth, I am rarely alone. Collective consciousness exists outside of time.

A painting that recreates Édouard Manet's "Le Citron" depicting a yellow lemon on a blue plate.

Cynthia Daignault, Lemons II, 2024

Cynthia Daignault, The Lemon, installation view, 2024

Cynthia Daignault, The Lemon, installation view, 2024

A set of ten paintings featuring details of Édouard Manet's "A Bar at the Folies-Bergère"

Cynthia Daignault, The Details, 2024

A painting of a close up of the bartender's face in Édouard Manet's "A Bar at the Folies-Bergère"

Cynthia Daignault, The Details (Folies-Bergère), detail, 2024

A painting of a close up of a bowl of clementines in Édouard Manet's "A Bar at the Folies-Bergère"

Cynthia Daignault, The Details (Folies-Bergère), detail, 2024

A painting of a close up of a bottle of champagne and the elbow of the bartender in Édouard Manet's "A Bar at the Folies-Bergère"

Cynthia Daignault, The Details (Folies-Bergère), detail, 2024

A painting of a close up of a glass on the bar in Édouard Manet's "A Bar at the Folies-Bergère"

Cynthia Daignault, The Details (Folies-Bergère), detail, 2024

Installation view of Cynthia Daignault’s exhibition “The Lemon” at Night Gallery

Cynthia Daignault, The Lemon, installation view, 2024

Installation view of Cynthia Daignault’s exhibition “The Lemon” at Night Gallery

Cynthia Daignault, The Lemon, installation view, 2024

A painting of an AI generated image in the style of Édouard Manet depicting two figures draped in fabric laying on the grass.

Cynthia Daignault, Stable Diffusion 1, 2024

The only poster in my bedroom as a young child was Monet’s The Artist's Garden at Vétheuil (1881). I bought the print myself at The National Gallery, and I remember telling people that it was my favorite painting. I was always drawn to French painting, and why years later I took my first painting classes in Paris. As a student, teachers often told me that I shared certain innate sensibilities with Manet—in brushwork and color mixing—and I used to imagine an unbroken thread connecting us. It’s moving to remember that painting is a vocation stretching back to very start of human history. In many ways, this show is an attempt to understand the weight of influence. Of history. Of love. Where does one person ends and another begin? After all, just as ideas and works repeat over time and space, so too with people. Aren’t people all just versions and copies as well?

Installation view of Cynthia Daignault’s exhibition “The Lemon” at Night Gallery

Cynthia Daignault, The Lemon, installation view, 2024

A painting of an AI generated image in the style of Édouard Manet depicting two figures wearing nothing but red hats laying on the grass.

Cynthia Daignault, Stable Diffusion 2, 2024

A painting of an AI generated image in the style of Édouard Manet depicting two nude figures laying on the grass.

Cynthia Daignault, Stable Diffusion 3, 2024

Detail of two combined faces in Cynthia Daignault's "Stable Diffusion, 4"

Cynthia Daignault, Stable Diffusion 3, detail, 2024

Installation view of Cynthia Daignault’s exhibition “The Lemon” at Night Gallery

Cynthia Daignault, The Lemon, installation view, 2024

Installation view of Cynthia Daignault’s exhibition “The Lemon” at Night Gallery

Cynthia Daignault, The Lemon, installation view, 2024

An abstract painting of green, yellow and blue streaks of paint in the style of Gerhard Richter.

Cynthia Daignault, The Luncheon, 2024

Installation view of Cynthia Daignault’s exhibition “The Lemon” at Night Gallery

Cynthia Daignault, The Lemon, installation view, 2024

A painting of a white wall with a painting of a still-life depicting a copper pot, fish, a lemon, and oysters on a white table cloth in a gilded frame.

Cynthia Daignault, The Still-Life, 2024

Detail of Cynthia Daignault's "The Still Life"

Cynthia Daignault, The Still-Life, detail, 2024

And what are the boundaries of an artwork—where one begins and another ends? In this age of screens and social media, we often think of a painting as its digital image alone, but the nature of any one work stretches far beyond its four sides. Viewership. Historical context. Scholarship. Provenance. A poster on a bedroom wall. Think about music. When does a song end? Does it end when the track stops, and the needle drags across the diameter of a record label? But what of the echo in your mind? Long after the last note has sounded, the melody carries on for hours, like a wave crossing the ocean toward the shore. And what if you teach it to someone else? Does a song end when the last person on earth who ever heard it dies and passes away? But isn’t it still there in the air itself? A desert wind, blowing across the tops of a few bottles could pick out the melody again, even if there was no one there to hear it. Does a song ever end? Or does it just hover unseen in the air, where it always was and always will be, just waiting to play again one more time before the universe explodes?

—Cynthia Daignault, 2024

Installation view of Cynthia Daignault’s exhibition “The Lemon” at Night Gallery

Cynthia Daignault, The Lemon, installation view, 2024

A painting of the centerfold of a book depicting Édouard Manet's "The Dead Toreador"

Cynthia Daignault, TBC, 2024

Installation view of Cynthia Daignault’s exhibition “The Lemon” at Night Gallery

Cynthia Daignault, The Lemon, installation view, 2024

A large painting of two pages of a book with recreations of Camille Pissaro and Paul Cézanne paintings with text beneath the images describing the artists recreating works and the creative potential of translation.

Cynthia Daignault, The Book, 2024

Cynthia Daignault, The Book, detail, 2024

Cynthia Daignault, The Book, detail, 2024

Installation view of Cynthia Daignault’s exhibition “The Lemon” at Night Gallery

Cynthia Daignault, The Lemon, installation view, 2024

Cynthia Daignault, The Book, detail, 2024

Cynthia Daignault, The Book, detail, 2024

Installation view of Cynthia Daignault’s exhibition “The Lemon” at Night Gallery

Cynthia Daignault, The Lemon, installation view, 2024

Cynthia Daignault (b. 1978, Baltimore, MD) has presented solo exhibitions at Kasmin Gallery, New York; The Sunday Painter, London; Night Gallery, Los Angeles; FLAG Art Foundation, New York; and White Columns, New York. She has exhibited in several major museums and institutions, including the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AR; MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA; the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL; and the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York. Daignault’s work is in numerous public collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Dallas Museum of Art, TX; Blanton Museum of Art, TX; the Baltimore Museum of Art, MD; and the Walker Art Center, MN. Daignault is the recipient of numerous awards, including a 2019 Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant, a 2011 Rema Hort Foundation Award, and a 2010 Macdowell Colony Fellowship. In 2021, her work was featured in “Soft Water Hard Stone,” the fifth New Museum Triennial.

A painting of 33 of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's most acclaimed works in their collection arranged in a nonuniform grid.

Cynthia Daignault

The Collection, 2024

oil on linen

85 x 181 in (215.9 x 459.7 cm)

A painting of a white wall with a recreation of Édouard Manet's "Le Citron" in a gilded frame in the center.

Cynthia Daignault

The Lemon, 2024

oil on linen

65 3/4 x 97 3/4 in (167 x 248.3 cm)

Inquire
A diptych of two recreations of Édouard Manet's painting "Spring" which depicts a woman surrounded by green and blue fauna carrying a parasol.

Cynthia Daignault

The Springtime, 2024

oil on linen

each: 31 3/4 x 21 3/4 in (80.6 x 55.2 cm)

Inquire
Cynthia Daignault

Lemons II, 2024

oil on linen

6 1/2 x 9 3/4 in (16.5 x 24.8 cm)

Cynthia Daignault

Lemons II, 2024

oil on linen

6 1/2 x 9 3/4 in (16.5 x 24.8 cm)

Inquire
A set of ten paintings featuring details of Édouard Manet's "A Bar at the Folies-Bergère”

Cynthia Daignault

The Details (Folies-Bergère), 2024

oil on linen

10 panels each: 12 x 11 in (30.5 x 27.9 cm)

Inquire
A painting of an AI generated image in the style of Édouard Manet depicting two figures draped in fabric laying on the grass.

Cynthia Daignault

Stable Diffusion 1, 2024

oil on linen

31 1/2 x 73 1/2 in (80 x 186.7 cm)

Inquire
A painting of an AI generated image in the style of Édouard Manet depicting two figures wearing nothing but red hats laying on the grass.

Cynthia Daignault

Stable Diffusion 2, 2024

oil on linen

31 1/2 x 73 1/2 in (80 x 186.7 cm)

Inquire
A painting of an AI generated image in the style of Édouard Manet depicting two nude figures laying on the grass.

Cynthia Daignault

Stable Diffusion 3, 2024

oil on linen

31 1/2 x 73 1/2 in (80 x 186.7 cm)

An abstract painting of green, yellow and blue streaks of paint in the style of Gerhard Richter.

Cynthia Daignault

The Luncheon, 2024

oil on linen

85 3/4 x 109 3/4 in (217.8 x 278.8 cm)

Inquire
A painting of a white wall with a painting of a still-life depicting a copper pot, fish, a lemon, and oysters on a white table cloth in a gilded frame.

Cynthia Daignault

The Still-Life, 2024

oil on linen

85 3/4 x 73 3/4 in (217.8 x 187.3 cm)

Inquire
Cynthia Daignault

Bibliography (Édouard Manet), 2024

oil on linen

16 3/4 x 26 3/4 in (42.5 x 67.9 cm)

Cynthia Daignault

Bibliography (Édouard Manet), 2024

oil on linen

16 3/4 x 26 3/4 in (42.5 x 67.9 cm)

A painting of a white wall with a painting of a still-life depicting a copper pot, fish, a lemon, and oysters on a white table cloth in a gilded frame.

Cynthia Daignault

The Book, 2024

oil on linen

86 1/2 x 128 1/2 in (219.7 x 326.4 cm)

Inquire
A painting of 33 of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's most acclaimed works in their collection arranged in a nonuniform grid.

Cynthia Daignault

The Collection, 2024

oil on linen

85 x 181 in (215.9 x 459.7 cm)

A painting of a white wall with a recreation of Édouard Manet's "Le Citron" in a gilded frame in the center.

Cynthia Daignault

The Lemon, 2024

oil on linen

65 3/4 x 97 3/4 in (167 x 248.3 cm)

A diptych of two recreations of Édouard Manet's painting "Spring" which depicts a woman surrounded by green and blue fauna carrying a parasol.

Cynthia Daignault

The Springtime, 2024

oil on linen

each: 31 3/4 x 21 3/4 in (80.6 x 55.2 cm)

Cynthia Daignault

Lemons II, 2024

oil on linen

6 1/2 x 9 3/4 in (16.5 x 24.8 cm)

Cynthia Daignault

Lemons II, 2024

oil on linen

6 1/2 x 9 3/4 in (16.5 x 24.8 cm)

A set of ten paintings featuring details of Édouard Manet's "A Bar at the Folies-Bergère”

Cynthia Daignault

The Details (Folies-Bergère), 2024

oil on linen

10 panels each: 12 x 11 in (30.5 x 27.9 cm)

A painting of an AI generated image in the style of Édouard Manet depicting two figures draped in fabric laying on the grass.

Cynthia Daignault

Stable Diffusion 1, 2024

oil on linen

31 1/2 x 73 1/2 in (80 x 186.7 cm)

A painting of an AI generated image in the style of Édouard Manet depicting two figures wearing nothing but red hats laying on the grass.

Cynthia Daignault

Stable Diffusion 2, 2024

oil on linen

31 1/2 x 73 1/2 in (80 x 186.7 cm)

A painting of an AI generated image in the style of Édouard Manet depicting two nude figures laying on the grass.

Cynthia Daignault

Stable Diffusion 3, 2024

oil on linen

31 1/2 x 73 1/2 in (80 x 186.7 cm)

An abstract painting of green, yellow and blue streaks of paint in the style of Gerhard Richter.

Cynthia Daignault

The Luncheon, 2024

oil on linen

85 3/4 x 109 3/4 in (217.8 x 278.8 cm)

A painting of a white wall with a painting of a still-life depicting a copper pot, fish, a lemon, and oysters on a white table cloth in a gilded frame.

Cynthia Daignault

The Still-Life, 2024

oil on linen

85 3/4 x 73 3/4 in (217.8 x 187.3 cm)

Cynthia Daignault

Bibliography (Édouard Manet), 2024

oil on linen

16 3/4 x 26 3/4 in (42.5 x 67.9 cm)

Cynthia Daignault

Bibliography (Édouard Manet), 2024

oil on linen

16 3/4 x 26 3/4 in (42.5 x 67.9 cm)

A painting of a white wall with a painting of a still-life depicting a copper pot, fish, a lemon, and oysters on a white table cloth in a gilded frame.

Cynthia Daignault

The Book, 2024

oil on linen

86 1/2 x 128 1/2 in (219.7 x 326.4 cm)