Décès d'Alain Jacquet à New York

8 septembre 2008

Décès d'Alain Jacquet à New York

4 Temps TV Show, interview by Serge Gainsbourg 1969.

NEW YORK.- French artist Alain Jacquet died of cancer on September 4 at the Presbyterian Hospital in New York, at the age of 69. Born on February 22, 1939, in Neuilly-sur-Seine, he was a leading proponent of the pop art movement in France. This artistic movement emerged in the 1950s and drew its inspiration and techniques from popular mass culture, such as comics and ads.

Alain Jacquet had his first show in 1961 in France where he exhibited his "Cylinders" series, based on an abstract juxtaposition of vibrant colors in opposition to the aesthetics of the "Ecole de Paris." He soon made his reputation in the U.S. and Great Britain with his "Camouflages" series, which he began in the early sixties. As early as 1964, when he moved to New York, he began to use serigraphy and started resorting systematically to this technique of mechanical reproduction using the screen's smallest unity—the point—as a genuine theme in his work. Often reinterpreting different historical models, including "Olympia" by Manet and "La Source" by Ingres, he is best known for his take on Manet's "Déjeuner sur l'Herbe" (1964), featuring a gallery owner, art critic Pierre Restany and a painter as the painting's central figures (pictured here, with the permission of the Jacquet Estate).

Alain Jacquet's works of art are part of the permanent collection of museums throughout the world, including the British Arts Council of Great Britain (London), the Fondation Cartier (Paris), the Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth (Texas), the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, the Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain (Geneva), the Musée d'Art Moderne et d'Art Contemporain (Nice), the Musée National d'Art Moderne / Centre G. Pompidou (Paris), the Museum of Modern Art (New York) and the National Museum of American Art (Washington D.C.).

Divided between the dynamic artistic milieus in both New York and Paris, Alain Jacquet split his time between the two cultural capitals. He married Sophie Matisse, the great-granddaughter of the French Fauvist artist Henri Matisse and step-grand-daughter of Marcel Duchamp, in June 1992. She and their 15-year-old daughter, Gaïa Jacquet-Matisse, survive him.

Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe 1964. Sérigraphie sur papier – quadrichromie. 175 x 190 achat 1988.
Collection Mamac, Nice 988.16.1 Crédit photo Insecula

L'artiste français Alain Jacquet est décédé jeudi à New York des suites d'un cancer à l'âge de 69 ans, a annoncé vendredi un communiqué de l'ambassade de France. Il était l'époux de l'arrière-petite-fille d'Henri Matisse.

Installé à New York depuis 1964, Alain Jacquet était notamment connu pour ses ré-interprétations en clef "pop-art" de classiques comme Edouard Manet, et notamment du célèbre "Déjeuner sur l'herbe" du père de l'impressionnisme.

A partir de 1967, il décline des sculptures en braille. Le point devient l’entité génératrice. Sa sculpture "La Baratte" (1971-1975) offre des possibilités combinatoires presque illimitées. Depuis 1978, il réalise avec l’aide de l’ordinateur des "peintures de visions" où les images du globe Terrestre subissent d’étranges métamorphoses pour créer "une imagerie archétypale, signifiante pour tous".

Vivant entre New York et Paris, Alain Jacquet était marié depuis 1992 à Sophie Matisse, arrière-petite-fille du chef de file du fauvisme Henri Matisse, avec qui il avait eu une fille, Gaïa Jacquet-Matisse, âgée de 15 ans.