NEW ERA
ALAIN JACQUET, NEW YORK PAINTINGS 1981-1986
Hervé Bize is pleased to announce his participation for the third time in Independent New York to celebrate the 10th anniversary of the fair as we celebrate the 30th years of the gallery, with a project entitled New Era, Alain Jacquet, New York Paintings 1981-1986.
Why use the term New Era when it is about works executed by Alain Jacquet at the beginning of the eighties?
The premise of this project is that part of Jacquet’s approach, too hastily circumscribed around his connections with the Pop and Les Nouveaux Réalistes movements, was not given due consideration at the time because its progressive themes could not be understood. Today, this message resonates soundly with a modern audience, our project being current both in their subject matter as in their presentation — the artist having himself lived and worked a few blocks of the building in which the fair is being held — bolstering the gallery’s intent in exhibiting his works.
Following the spread by the NASA of an image of our planet, as it first appeared to Apollo astronauts, the Earth became an obsession for Alain Jacquet. Did he have a premonition that it was going to be one of the most important issues at the beginning of the 21st century? How could one not see in the use of this image which amazed him, that it should lead to humility and incite us change in the way one views our Mother Earth, Gaia.
His study of myths and religions, as well as his insatiable thirst for meaning and enlightenment along the path to knowledge, are at the origin of these “drawered” works, veritable visions of the Earth/Original Mother, both receptacle of the sacred Grail of humanity as well as matriarchal prophets, now more than ever, ring true in their approach to evoke the reappropriation of the body, and through it a growing awareness of the Environment.
Some will only see scattered body parts, some may find them obscene but others, on the contrary, will dive into the well to meet themselves.
Sexuality, also present in his work, defines us and daring to look at it is daring to look at oneself because it is by its creative energy, source of all things.
Beyond the message of these works which imply that the female and male polarities, regardless of gender since they are present in all, must reunite in conscience to lead to a saving power equality, the art of Alain Jacquet gives us the opportunity, at the same time, to try to understand ourselves, to understand the World and thereby, in a contemporary search, to hopefully preserve it.