Tag: france

Francois-Xavier and Claude Lalanne

Photographer Unknown, “Francois-Xavier and Claude Lalanne in the Pigeon Chairs”, 1974

François-Xavier Lalanne: Born in Agen, France, 1927. Died in Ury, France, 2008. Claude Lalanne: Born in Paris, France, 1924.

Claude and François-Xavier Lalanne are part of a long, brilliant tradition of Western dilettantes. That is, they are part of a stream of the thoroughly interested sort, who, having deeply submerged themselves in literature, the fine arts and various histories—ancient, lateral and celestial—surfaced with delight and an impish sense of how things aren’t.

For the Lalannes, in the company of other folly-makers like Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Prince Pier Francesco Orsini, Piero Fornasetti and Jean Cocteau, were not concerned with bolstering existing conventions of how we eat or how we sit or ultimately how we see and think, but playfully inverting norms and exaggerating ordinary aspects to fantastic effect.

Claude and François-Xavier met in Paris in the early 1950s, at an exhibition of François-Xavier’s paintings. They were together until his death in 2008. Their working practice was fairly unique, as they always kept separate studios—Claude preferring to express flora in hers and François-Xavier giving form to strange fauna in his. But quite early on they eschewed first names, and all subsequent work (no matter the creator) was to bear the mark of only “Lelanne.”

They were close friends, personally and idealistically, with many of the leading artists of midcentury Paris (Yves Tinguely, Marcel Duchamp, Jean Arp, Max Ernst, René Magritte, Salvador Dali). François-Xavier’s first studio was even adjacent to Constantin Brâncusi’s—interestingly enough, he took the studio as a painter and left a sculptor.

Fabienne Verdier

Paintings by Fabienne Verdier

Fabienne Verdier is an abstract painter who explores the dynamism of forces in nature, movement and immobility by drawing on her intimate knowledge of techniques and traditions of both Western and Eastern art.

As a young art school graduate, Verdier left France for China in 1985 to study the art of spontaneous painting and other Eastern traditions with some of the last great Chinese painters who survived the Cultural Revolution. Her adventure and immersion as an apprentice painter would last nearly ten years, recounted in her 2003 book, ‘Passagère du Silence’.

Verdier paints vertically in ink, standing directly on her stretchers, using giant brushes and tools of her own invention suspended from the studio ceiling. Her work combines Eastern aspects of unity, spontaneity and asceticism with the line, action and expression of Western painting.

Notes: Fabienne Verdier’s website, which includes several videos that present her exhibitions and follow her work process, is located at: http://fabienneverdier.com

Insert Image: Fabienne Verdier, “Color Flows 3”, 2012, Mixed Media on Canvas, 40 x 46 cm, Private Collection

Jegeor

Architectuall Photography by Jegeor

In his series “Paysages Urbains (Urban Landscapes)”, Parisian photographer Jegeor has captured the beauty of modern buildings. His pictures show how contemporary architecture can be playful despite being repetitive. His style of photography matches this modern architecture because, despite being rather abstract, it still allows for a subtle human touch from time to time.

Titles of Photos from Top to Bottom: “ Post-It”, “Pullman”, “Vertigo”, “Scie”, “L’Orgie”, “Convergence”, “Crous”, “La Ruche”, “Ministere”, “Pantip”

Georges Paul Leroux

Georges Paul Leroux (French, 1877-1957),” Les Baigneurs du Tibre [Bathers in the Tiber, Rome]”, 1909. Oil on Canvas,. Musée Departmental de l’Oise, Beauvais.

Georges Leroux is considered a painter, engraver and illustrator from the French school. He was born August 3, 1877 in Paris and died in 1957. He received his formal art training at the Beaux-Arts Academie under Leon Joseph Bonnat.

At the outbreak of the First World War, Leroux joined the French Army and served on the Western Front in France and Belgium. He later recalled how on one reconnaissance mission he saw “a group of French soldiers taking shelter in a great shell-hole full of water”. That evening he made sketches of what he had seen and later painted “L’Enfer (Hell).” One critic remarked that the Leroux had “produced a work which attempts to represent as accurately as possible the Unreprehensible reality of war”.

George Leroux was a regular exhibitor at the Salon des Artistes Française where he was awarded the third class medal in 1903 and the Prix de Rome of 1906. In 1908, Leroux was honored with one of France’s awards to Chevalier in the Legion of Honor. He won a second class medal for 1911 and the Prix de Henner in 1920.

Micael Reynaud

Animation Gif by Micael Reynaud

Freelance designer and stop-motion animator Micaël Reynaud creates animated GIFs. His process involves the use of video techniques like slit-scanning, time-lapse, and various forms of masking to create what he refers to as “hypnotic very short films.” Indeed many of these animations are pulled from fully realized videos which you can watch on his Vimeo channel.

Reynaud’s work has not gone unnoticed in the art world. His pigeon GIF was a finalist in the first Saatchi Gallery Motion Photography competition, and he recently won the 2014 Giphoscope International Art GIF contest.

Eric Astoul

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Ceramics by Eric Astoul

Associated with the ceramicist community of La Borne in central France, known for its distinct stoneware, Eric Astoul creates decorative earthenware vases and pots, as well as stone sculptures that contain rough geometrical forms and shapes. Astoul has traveled extensively throughout Europe and Africa, and is influenced by both the ancient and modern ceramics he has encountered in those continents. To create his stoneware, which features textured surfaces and both angular and curvilinear forms, he fires each piece for eight days in a wood-burning “Anagama” kiln, only the second of its kind in La Borne.

Maxime Raynal

Maxime Raynal, “Nighttime Rain, Port la Nouvelle, France”

In this breathtaking long exposure photograph by Maxime Raynal, we see a night-time storm over the waters of Port la Nouvelle in southern France.
For those interested, the shutter was left open for 383 seconds (nearly 6.5 minutes!) with an aperture of f/13 and an ISO of 200. This means all of the lightning strikes seen in this photo didn’t occur at the exact same time, but over the duration that the shutter was open.

Arch de Triumph

Arch de Triumph, Details, Paris, France

The Arc is located on the right bank of the Seine at the centre of a dodecagonal configuration of twelve radiating avenues. It was commissioned in 1806 after the victory at Austerlitz by Emperor Napoleon at the peak of his fortunes. Laying the foundations alone took two years and, in 1810, when Napoleon entered Paris from the west with his bride Archduchess Marie-Louise of Austria, he had a wooden mock-up of the completed arch constructed. The architect, Jean Chalgrin, died in 1811 and the work was taken over by Jean-Nicolas Huyot.

During the Bourbon Restoration, construction was halted and it would not be completed until the reign of King Louis-Philippe, between 1833 and 1836, by the architects Goust, then Huyot, under the direction of Héricart de Thury. On 15 December 1840, brought back to France from Saint Helena, Napoleon’s remains passed under it on their way to the Emperor’s final resting place at the Invalides. Prior to burial in the Panthéon, the body of Victor Hugo was displayed under the Arc during the night of 22 May 1885.

Jean Dubuffet

Figurative Art of Jean Dubuffet

French painter and sculptor Jean Dubuffet was one of the most influential and prolific artists of the 20th century. The founder of an entire art movement, ‘Art Brut,’ Dubuffet tore down the boundaries of the established art world and opened art up to self-taught outsiders. Join us, as we take a look at one of the most important artists of the 20th century.

Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet was born on July 31, 1901, in Le Havre, France. Raised in a middle-class family of wholesale wine merchants, he began painting in 1918 at the age of 17 and moved to Paris that same year to study painting at the Académie Julian. He was described as a rebel, one who resisted authority, which became evident when he dropped out of art school after just six months.

It wasn’t until his visits to Algeria between 1945 and 1947 that he created Art Brut. Inspired by the constantly shifting, nomadic tribes of Algeria, Dubuffet decided to create an artistic movement that would lie outside the boundaries of the art world and would exist ‘without walls.’ This new Art Brut, or ‘raw art,’ placed emphasis on art created outside the established art scene, including pieces produced by untrained amateurs, children and psychiatric patients. Dubuffet would go on to emulate this expressive and untutored style in his own work.

According to Dubuffet, Art Brut was more precious than art created by professionals because “These works are created from solitude and from pure and authentic creative impulses – where the worries of competition, acclaim and social promotion do not interfere.” He argues, “We cannot avoid the feeling that in relation to these works, cultural art in its entirety appears to be the game of a futile society, fallacious parade.”

Gustave Caillebotte

Gustave Caillebotte, “The Floor Scrapers”, Oil on Canvas, 1875, Musee d’Orsay

French painter and art collector Gustave Caillebotte was born in 1848 in Paris to Céleste Daufresne and Martial Caillebotte, a wealthy textile mill owner. He began drawing and painting at a young age on his family’s estate in Yernes, located south of Paris. Caillebotte studied law, completing  his law degree in 1868, and received his law license in 1870. Soon after his graduation, he was drafted to serve in the Franco-Prussian war as a member of the Garde Nationale de la Seine from July of 1870 to March of 1871.

Following the war, Caillebotte decided to pursue an artistic career. He visited the studio of Realist academic-painter Léon Bonnat, who reinforced his decision to take art as a serious career. In 1872, Caillebotte enrolled at the Êcole des Beaux-Arts and studied under Bonnat;  however, he spent most of the time painting in his own studio at the family home. Within a short period of time, Caillebotte suffered several losses in his family life: his father died in 1874, his brother Rene in 1876, and his mother died in 1878. The family fortune was divided between the remaining two brothers, Gustave and Martial, both of whom agreed to the sale of the Yerres estate and moved to an apartment in Paris. 

Beginning in 1874, Gustave Caillebotte met and befriended several artists who were working outside the influence of the Academie des Beaux-Arts; these artists included Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Pierre-Augustus Renoir, Camille Pissarro, and Giuseppe De Nittis. Caillebotte  made his artistic debut in 1876 at the Second Impressionist Exhibition in Paris, a show that would establish him as an indispensable figure in the group both artistically and financially. This loosely knit group of impressionist, avant-garde artists rejected the academic style of painting and the formality of the official Salon’s traditional exhibition protocols.  

Caillebotte’s style, which so outraged the contemporary critics and academics, conversely inspired later artists to use some of his more radical compositional techniques. His paintings often contained highly unusual perspectives, such as viewpoints looking up from below at a slanting floor, and viewpoints gazing down from an indistinctive perch or standing on the edge of an intimate scene. Caillebotte also cropped his protagonists and scenes in an unconventional manner, such as the foreground figures in his 1877 “Rue de Paris; Temps de Pluie” and 1878 “The Painter Under His Parasol” whose lower body portions are beyond the image plane. These innovative techniques became features of future avant-garde artists from Van Gogh to Pablo Picasso.

Notes: A more complete biography of Gustave Caillebotte, with other painting images, can be found in the April 2021 archive of Ultrawolves.

 

Top Insert Image; Martial Caillebotte, “Gustave Caillebotte and His Dog, Bergère, on the Palace du Caroussel”, 1892

Bottom Insert Image: Photographer Unknown, “Gustave Caillebotte (Right) and Martial Caillebotte Cailebotte, His Brother”, circa 1878

Sebastian Del Grosso

Sebastian Del Grosso, Photographic Sketches

A skilful artist has brought his selfies to life – by sketching himself into the picture to make the photographs look like paintings. Sebastien Del Grosso, 33, from Paris, first came up with the idea when he wanted to update his Facebook profile picture and has since developed a quirky collection of images.

After taking a self-portrait, the digital artist started to sketch himself into the picture. But rather than completely transforming his pictures into a complete sketch, the artist only partially adapted the original pictures, creating an interesting composite effect. This is then used to make the photographs appear in part like black and white paintings.

“The drawings are done with a simple pencil on a sheet of paper. The pencil strokes are fast and nervous, and so give the impression of a construction. Then, my “dodge and burn” effect is used a lot in the final rendering. It is in fact a multitude of brush strokes, black or white, which serve to highlight, or rather mitigate some facial features, and clothing. This treatment is intended to look like a little more like a painting than a photo. Then the drawing is scanned, cleaned and added to the picture with Photoshop tools.” -Sebastian Del Grosso

My thanks for finding this artist to a great blog http://art4gays.tumblr.com

George Desvallière

George Desvallière, “Les Tireurs à l’Arc”, Pastel, 1895. Musée d’Orsay, Paris, France

At the start of the First World War, Desvallières joined up as a volunteer. Very quickly his men acknowledged him to be an unsurpassed leader, and demanded of his superiors that he be kept in his post, which was at first only a temporary appointment. Desvallières led his “chasseurs” across the Alsatian mountains for four years with determination, courage and a kindness recognised by all on the front.

In March 1915, his seventeen-year- old son Daniel was killed in action a few miles away from his father. This loss affected him deeply, but thanks to his convert’s faith, he was able to sublimate this terrible ordeal. All his post-war work is centred on the theme of the soldier’s sacrifice for his country, which he assimilates to the sacrifice of Christ on the Cross. Some of his canvases are directly related to the War and to his son’s death, and his impressive wall-paintings on a similar theme made a profound impact on contemporary public opinion.

Georges Desvallieres

Georges Desvallieres, ”Ball Players”, Pastel, 1894

A native of Paris, Desvallières was a great-grandson of academician Gabriel-Marie Legouvé, and received a religious upbringing. He studied at the Académie Julian with Tony Robert-Fleury and with Jules Valadon at the École des Beaux-Arts. He painted portraits at first, but a relationship with Gustave Moreau turned him towards an interest in mythology and religion.

Desvallières became acquainted with ancient art during a trip to Italy in 1890, and upon his return began working in the style with which he was most associated, combining dark subjects and violent color with a dramatic conception of religion. He took as his subjects numerous symbolist characters, such as Narcissus (1901), Orpheus (1902), and The Marche Towards the Ideal (1903). He also served as one of the founders of the Salon d’Automne.

Mathias Casado Castro

Mathias Casado Castro, “Sailors”

“Bad, or good, as it happens to be, that is what it is to exist! . . . It is as though I have been silent and fuddled with sleep all my life. In spite of all, I know now that at least it is better to go always towards the summer, towards those burning seas of light; to sit at night in the forecastle lost in an unfamiliar dream, when the spirit becomes filled with stars, instead of wounds, and good and compassionate and tender. To sail into an unknown spring, or receive one’s baptism on storm’s promontory, where the solitary albatross heels over in the gale, and at last come to land. To know the earth under one’s foot and go, in wild delight, ways where there is water.”

–Malcolm Lowry,  Ultramarine