Christian Jaccard: the aesthetics of fire

Born in Fontenay-sous-Bois in the Paris region, Christian Jaccard studied from 1956 to 1960 at the Bourges School of Fine Arts. Establishing a link between his taste for nature and geology, he quickly developed an interest in industrial waste and footprints. 

Christian Jaccard (né en 1939)

Diamant BRN 03, 1990
Burn and acrylic on wood

Result: 3 900 euros 

From 1964, Christian Jaccard works as a chromist engraver in a typographic printing company. It was here that he experimented with the process of printing and impregnation, thanks to which he understood, in a new light, the relationship between the canvas and the tool that it works with. His pictorial practice bypasses the classicism of the approach. Placed on the ground, his canvas is printed using natural or manufactured objects (plants, insects, ribbons...). 

If its author has never openly been part of it, this work can be situated close to the issues raised by the Support/Surfaces group. In 1971, the artist evolves his artistic process. He uses knots of rope and strings to paint thus turning his back, as Pierre Soulages did a few years later, to the canonical use of the brush. Fire and the traces of combustion - as traces of something - also fascinate the artist. An ode to randomness, the flames draw patterns, ravage some surfaces, sparing some of them. 

Flying in the face of all attempts at classification, Christian Jaccard creates a "Chemin de cendres" (Ash Path) that offers a monumental application to his work. Throughout his works, the painter expresses a reflection on words, letters and vocabulary. 

For example, in 1997, he produced several photo reports including Ici, Maintenant, Rêve, Autrement présentant des écritures incendiées (Here, Now, Dream), in which shredded words seem to burn in silence. The artist undertook a stay in Japan in 1994, at Villa Kujoyama. 

Several ambitious exhibitions have shown Christian Jaccard's work, including "Correspondances - Breitner / Jaccard" at the Musée d'Orsay in 2008.