Vol du bustier, 1992
(Flight/Theft of the Bustier)
acrylic on canvas
183 cm x 244 cm [72" x 96"]

The Incident: During the Rodney King civil unrest of 1992 Frederick's of Hollywood's Lingerie Museum was looted. Two items were taken from its permanent collection: the pantaloons Ava Gardner had worn in a movie and the bustier Madonna had worn in her Blond Ambition tour. The pantaloons were soon returned, not so the bustier that remained missing for several months. Los Angeles Times carried a day count of the missing celebrated bustier. This saga lasted for several months until that notable piece of underwear was returned to a priest at the Sacred Sacrament church in Hollywood.

About the artwork: By emphasizing the roundness of the earth, speckled with plumes of smoke, as I saw them from my perch inHollywood, I want to imbue the social upheaval with telluric import. In this piece I contrast the gravity of the social cataclysm with the downright silly and frivolous incident of missing laundry. I give the bustier a treatment that is reminiscent of the Winged Victory (Nike) of Samothrace, thus conjoining transient and ephemeral phenomena, like fashion and pop music, with the remains of an ancient culture that the general consensus regards as having perennial and lasting aesthetic values. My intent is to underscore the state of our values by putting together the seriousness of the turmoil with the foibles of mainstream pop culture.

About the format: I chose unstretched canvas to suggest a cowhide —remains of slaughtered steer— with its connotations of blood offering, sacrifice, and other primal rituals and functions.

About the title: The verb vol in French and volar in Spanish—my native tongue— mean both to fly and to steal. I found that the noun vol in French expresses my idea with an economy of words that Spanish or English didn't offer.
Alfredo de Batuc

Bibliography:
Blending In Surprise: Alfredo de Batuc's dreamy paintings offer the unexpected.
By Josef Woodard.
Los Angeles Times, June 23, 2000, Los Ángeles.

El pintor mexicano busca que su obra sea reconocida porque contiene profundidad y no por ser una llamarada de petate.
By Victoria Infante,
La Opinión, May 10, 2000, Los Ángeles.