PIASA auction house dedicate an entire sale of the Daniel Varenne collection to the works of Alain Jacquet, October 23, 2019.
At the end of the 1950s, after studying architecture at the Fine Art School in Paris, Alain Jacquet entered the world of painting. It was at this time that he became friends with artists like Jean Tinguely(1925-1991), Yves Klein (1928-1962), Nikki Saint Phalle (1930-2002), Martial Raysse (born in 1936).
Near the New Figuration, very interested in the aesthetics and the discourse conveyed by Pop Art, he undertakes a trip to New York in 1961. He meets the actors of the art scene including Andy Warhol (1928-1987), Roy Lichtenstein (1923-1997), Robert Rauschenberg (1925-2008).
Shortly before this stay, it is through the Jacquet Game that the Abstractions become Pictures of Epinal. The seemingly abstract canvas recomposes the set of a backgammon game. With a palette reduced to six colours (the three primaries and the three secondary), the artist transforms the original image, simplifies it, erases it and gives way to ready-made forms, which juxtapose to form a new image.
The meaning is thus reinvented. It is this work that Alain Jacquet extends and deepens in his Pictures of Epinal. They are first roughly reproduced in pencil on a sheet, then schematized to the extreme, to finally give shape on the canvas, an assembly of tapered shapes, a puzzle of bright colours that has no abstract that appearance.
Alain Jacquet (1939-2008)
Image d'Epinal: L'Union entre la France et l'Autriche, février 1962
Huile sur toile
Signée et datée en bas à droite
Contresignée, datée, titrée et annotée au dos: "AJ-IE-UFA-62"
194,5 x 212 cm
Provenance: Galerie Daniel Varenne, Genève
Estimation: 15 000 / 25 000 euros
Several pieces of the series of images of Epinal will be offered for sale by PIASA October 23, 2019 as The Union between France and Austria, made in 1962, was exhibited at the Museum of Picardy in Amiens in 1998.
Alain Jacquet (1939-2008)
Camouflage Michel Ange, Chapelle Sixtine, la tentation d'Eve, 1962-63
Huile sur toile
Signée, datée et titrée en bas à gauche
Annotée au dos "AJ-CAM-MA-TE-63"
200 x 250 cm
Provenance:
- Daniel Varenne, Galerie Le Clos de Sierne, Genève
- Collection Daniel Varenne, Genève
Estimation: 60 000 / 80 000 euros
If the History of men inspires the artist, that of images gives him an almost infinite repertoire that he reuses in his Camouflages. In Camouflage Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel, the temptation of Eve, estimated between 60 000 and 80 000 euros, Alain Jacquet draws on the formal vocabulary of the Italian Renaissance.
Alain Jacquet (1939-2008)
Camouflage Walt Disney (Donald watching TV), 1963
Huile sur toile
Signée, datée et titrée en haut à droite
Contresignée, datée et annotée au dos: "AJ-CAM-WD-63"
100 x 81 cm
Provenance:
- Robert Fraser Gallery, Londres
- Collection Daniel Varenne, Genève
Estimation: 60 000 / 80 000 euros
As a sign of a composite heritage and influence of a booming pop culture, Camouflage Walt Disney (Donald Watching TV), refers to cartoons.
