In Dumet’s work, each of these pictures is created according to the process of setting the table: first, she applies a large sheet of paper as a tablecloth to the picture support, in one colour or patterned, then the previously painted and trimmed papers for the crockery and cutlery, and finally the prepared dishes and the items that are left scattered about. Even the arranging of the papers in the studio, which imparts a playful quality to the process of creating the work, mirrors the act of moving objects back and forth on the table.

In her work, Dumet understands collage as a painterly technique. As in her previous pieces, her examination of still lifes becomes evident, especially the late representations from 18th-century France, characterised by their simplicity and everydayness, far from any courtly pomp. The bold colours and the energy that they exude are, however, reminiscent in their intensity of Henri Matisse (1869–1954). Like him and other Fauvist painters, Dumet's deliberate avoidance of depicting pictorial depth reveals an attempt to create a poetic space through the use of colour.

Dumet’s depiction captures the situation in which the idea for the painting arose: a meal with friends and relatives, combined with memories of pleasant hours and good conversations. Lastly, she affixes the bill on the picture. It functions, says Dumet, like a journal, a diary that tells of the restaurant, the menu and the number of guests.

The painting ‘I Hope I Didn’t Forget Anything’ (2023) offers a variation on this narrative pattern. Instead of the restaurant bill, Dumet paints a handwritten shopping list lying on the table, which is lavishly set – with the dish thus planned and until then only imagined. The ‘prepared’ result is presented in the diptych ‘Let Them Eat Cake’ (2023). The banquet table is complemented by an active element: hands that serve the food and regales the guests protrude into the picture. The juxtaposition of these two images, like two segments of a narrative, also introduce new temporal layers which complement the moment of retrospection with the future and the present.

It is these moments, places, thoughts and experiences that Dumet paints in her collages, ultimately transforming them into ‘Festmahle’ (Eng.: feasts). This is true even if Dumet’s choice of the term in the exhibition title is often associated with decadence, since it can after all be understood provocatively or ironically, as it might refer to a stop at a café (‘P’tit déj’ au Belfort,’ 2023) or a fast-food restaurant (‘McDo avec papa,’ 2023).

Johanna Dumet’s compositions may evoke the immediacy of swift, everyday photography and its presence in social media, but her visible engagement with art history imparts a supra-temporal significance to her subjects, and her narrative dedication gives them emotional accessibility and contemporary relevance.

Johanna Dumet was born in 1991 in Guéret, France. She lives in Berlin.