JEAN CLAUDES VIGNES 1924/1996

SUPERB AND RARE OIL ON CANVAS FROM THE ROMAN PERIOD DATED 1959. 92X65CM 

Jean-Claude Vignes was born in Reims in 1924. His family, keen on art, passed on their passion to their children. Very early on, the young boy's tastes shifted towards literature, music and painting. Arriving in Paris in 1942 after classical studies, Jean-Claude Vignes studied at the School of Decorative Arts and took evening classes provided by the city's cultural services. The future artist discovers the painting of the masters of the Renaissance (Botticelli, Fra Angelico, Uccello, etc.), painting which will mark him forever (He will have a true passion for the work of Caravaggio, Titian and especially Piero della Francesca ).
He was not twenty years old when he set up his first workshop; the young man participated intensely in the cultural activities of post-war Paris in full turmoil. He learned about engraving (etching and burin), which he practiced for several years. He collaborated (1947) with Hans Bellmer and colored the latter’s photographs for his book “La Poupée” (Ed. Marcel Zerbib). Vignes rubbed shoulders with Ellsworth Kelly, who came to live in Paris from 1948 to 1954 (much later, in 1992, Vignes participated in the hanging of the latter's exhibition organized at the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume). Vineyards travel (Italy in particular).
Until his installation in Cannes (1963), the artist, alongside his activities as a painter and engraver, worked as a decorator for theater, dance (for Janine Charrat and Peter Van Dyck in 1951) and cinema, exploring a pictorial territory made aware by his encounter with the work of the American painter Mark Tobey. He designed the stained glass windows of the church of Fontaine les Grès in 1954, as well as models of books, records and fabrics. It was during this period that Jean-Claude Vignes acquired great mastery of techniques (painting, drawing).
His drawn work, in particular, gradually emerged from the end of the sixties, following the series of "Assemblies" and "Painted Reliefs" - which are more related to the artistic concerns of the sixties -, which will follow one another multiple series of drawings that flow from one another. After having experimented with trace spaces based on bodily “Imprints”, he creates the “Frostings”, draws the “Crumpled Papers”. In 1968, Jean-Claude Vignes created, in collaboration, the sets and costumes for the film “Le corps de Diane” (Jean-Louis Richard) with Jeanne Moreau with whom he became friends.
In the 1980s, he tackled the impressive series “Body Fragments” which revealed the purest direct translation of his own emotion. Vignes will turn for a time towards interpretive work based on the painting of the old masters. Then there will be other series: “Clothes”, “Cushions” dug by the weight of the bodies, “Fish heads”, the “Quinces”, the “Garlic” and the “Landscapes”, the last two series that he painted on reclaimed wood, old irregular boards eroded by time.
Jean-Claude Vignes disappeared in Nice in early 1996

Personal exhibitions 
 

1967:
Galerie Murs Ouverts, Paris.

1974:
French Institute -Edinburgh Festival, Scotland.

1975:
Galerie Le Dessin, Paris,

 
Maison de la Culture, Grenoble.

1976:
House of Culture, Saint-Etienne,

 
Candela Gallery, Cannes.

1978:
Open Walls Gallery, Vence.

1979:
Antiope Gallery, Sorrento, Italy,

 
La Tête de l’art gallery, Grenoble.

1980:
Pierre Lescot Gallery, Paris.

nineteen eighty one :
Lo Païs Gallery, Draguignan,

 
J-C David Gallery, Grenoble.

1984:
Haut-Var Cultural Action Group, Aups,

 
Janine Lapeygrade Gallery, Orléans,

 
Pierre Lescot Gallery, Paris.

1985:
Cultural Center, Aups.

1986:
Bacus Gallery, Cannes,

 
Mossa Gallery - Nice Museum,

 
Pierre Lescot Gallery, Paris.

1988:
L’Ariete Gallery, Rome

 
Pierre Lescot gallery, Paris

1990 :
Eterso Gallery, Cannes.

1991:
“Body in Fragments”, retrospective,

 
Castre Museum, Cannes,

 
Pierre Lescot Gallery, Paris.

1993:
Edwige Feuillère Theater, Vesoul,

 
Martagon Gallery, Malaucène.

1995:
Reims Museum of Fine Arts.

1996:
“Homage...Jean-Claude Vignes” La Castre Museum, Cannes.

1997 :
 Galerie de la Gare, Bonnieux

2002:
 Labenche Museum, Brives

2003:
 Carrouges Museum

2005:
 La Malmaison, Cannes,

2005:
 Villa Domergue, Cannes

2007:
 ARTEUM, CHATEAUNEUF-LE-ROUG

Exhibition catalogs
Grenoble House of Culture, 1975
Open Walls Gallery, Vence, 1978
L'Ariete Gallery Rome, 1988, 
Castre Museum, Cannes, 1991
Reims Museum of Fine Arts, 1995
Castre Museum, Cannes, 1996
 
Acquisitions 
Frac Provence-Côte d’Azur
Frac Champagne-Ardennes
Frac Ile-de-France
Numerous group exhibitions

Ref: G0SFVVI2QG