As part of the "Daniel Varenne II Collection" auction sell on Wednesday 28th October 2020, PIASA is honouring the work of several French plastic artists from the second half of the 20th century, including Jean-Pierre Raynaud.
Jean-Pierre Raynaud's childhood was shaken by a tragedy, the death of his father during the bombing of the factory where he was employed in 1943. In poor health, Raynaud studied at the School of Horticulture from which he graduated in 1958. After his military service, which lasted from 1959 to 1961, he gave up the profession of gardener, which nevertheless played a decisive role in his interest in plants and in the handling of objects related to horticulture such as flower pots.
His first works, which date from 1962-1963, are assemblages made from scrap objects, objects taken from road signs (in particular the forbidden direction) and building materials collected from rubbish dumps. Raynaud soon came close to the artists of the New Realism (Yves Klein, Daniel Spoerri, Raymond Hains, Jean Tinguely, Niki de Saint Phalle) who confirmed his interest in everyday and ordinary objects.
Jean-Pierre Raynaud (born 1939)
Psycho-objet agression C, 1965
Estimate : 30000 / 40000 €
In 1963, Raynaud began to create "Psycho-Objects" which he exhibited in 1965 at the Jean Larcade gallery during his first solo show ("Psycho-object-aggression C" 1965), lot 7. In the catalogue of this exhibition, Alain Jouffroy wrote: "With Jean-Pierre Raynaud, the icy perspective that connects and separates the world and thought (...) is strikingly highlighted: his Psycho-Objects encircle the same central absence (...). Nothing is expressed here, but everything is shown with such clarity that the viewer can circulate, settle down, immobilise himself inside a mental laboratory". Raynaud's works are objects with a highly charged psychological impact, reinforced by the strict use of red and white, and the unexpected association of simple elements such as gauges, ladders, shovels, signs or flowerpots ("La réalité au mètre", 1968), lot 8.
Jean-Pierre Raynaud (né en 1939)
La Réalité au mètre, n°20, 1968
Estimate : 20000 / 30000 €
From this date on, Raynaud's success grew. In 1966, he is noticed by Mathias Fels who devotes an exhibition to him. He gets close to Arman who incites him to spend two months at the Chelsea Hotel in New York, while collectors Philippe Durand-Ruel and Jean-Marie Rossi buy all the works from his workshop. Selected for the São Paolo Biennial by Michel Ragon, Raynaud benefited from several museum exhibitions in 1968-1969 such as at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Moderna Museet in Stockholm.
He multiplied his actions with the red flowerpot filled with cement, which became his favourite motif (Untitled, 1966), lot 6: thus, after exhibiting 300 red pots at the Kunsthalle in Düsseldorf, he presented 4000 in London, Jerusalem and Hanover in 1971. In 1972, Raynaud came to four-colour printing, repeating the same element in four colours in the series "Red, Green, Yellow, Blue". Initially interested in industrial objects, he then concentrated on more violently connoted objects related to the theme of death.
Jean-Pierre Raynaud (born 1939)
Untitled, 1966
Estimate : 20000 / 30000 €
Raynaud also oriented his work towards a more architectural dimension, as can be seen in his blockhouse at La Celle Saint-Cloud, which he opened to the public in 1974, and whose particularity is that it is entirely covered with white earthenware tiles from the walls to the furniture, from floor to ceiling. Until 1993, when it was demolished, he never ceased to transform this place, comparable to a real research laboratory. Tiling was omnipresent in projects related to architecture ("Espaces zéro", "Container zero", 1988, M.N.A.M.) but also in projects whose scale brought them closer to statuary or painting. Thus in 1988, Raynaud brought together flags for the exhibition "Bleu, Blanc, Rouge" at the Galerie de France, where the white was replaced by tiles ("Bleu, Blanc, Rouge", 1987), lot 9.
Jean-Pierre Raynaud (born 1939)
Bleu-Blanc-Rouge, 1987
Estimate 10000 / 15000 €
