Description
Jacques Brissot (1929-2020) Saint John in the Desert, after Hieronymus Bosch Mixed media (successive layers of collage, highlights, varnish, sanding) on panel in painted frame titled lower center on cartel 84 x 66 cm Jacques Brissot was born in Paris in 1929. A great admirer of the Flemish primitives (Dierick Bouts, Petrus Christus, Hieronymus Bosch, Bruegel the Elder...), he nurtured the dream of becoming an artist, although he admitted that he "didn't know how to paint". His first career was as a film-maker and director. In the '60s, he made experimental films, worked with Pierre Schaeffer, the French pioneer of musique concrète, in the innovative Service de recherche de la RTF (French Radio and Television Broadcasting), and edited and directed films for television... forging a solid media culture at a time when the media sector was booming. The ferment of the late 1960s awakened his pictorial desires. In the early 70s, at the age of 40, he put down his camera, but did not abandon the media and his know-how. From then on, he expressed himself with still images, carefully cut and assembled from countless magazines. He chose the technique he would use for the rest of his life: collage. With humor and acerbity, he reinterprets the masterpieces of Flemish painting, borrowing their realism and abundance, and depicts the society previously observed through a lens. His "Descente de croisement" (lot no. 32), executed in 1976, brings him closer to narrative figuration, and brings to mind the aesthetics of Alain Jacquet and the "métier" of Guðmundur Guðmundsson, known as Erró, combined with the mischievousness of Gérard Schlosser... Far from contenting himself with associating pieces of magazines, Jacques Brissot is a master of the art of collage. His attention to detail, his countless, precise cut-outs and the multiple layers that make up his works confuse the eye - you'd think you were looking at paint! And his layers also accumulate when it comes to interpreting his subjects: his Saint John in the Desert (lot no. 37) looks like a futuristic icon overtaken by technology, a Sébastien Tellier in high heels looking for inspiration. Blinded by virtual reality goggles, deafened by the noise of cars and planes, the mystical lamb replaced by a suitcase, the traveler is lost in the desert of mass consumption. The same is true of his impressive triptych (lot no. 36), where his traveler, camera on shoulder (perhaps the young Brissot?), gets lost on paths awash with cables... when the panels open, Bosch's Hay Wagon is replaced by an immense television where citizens and journalists crowd together. The human figures of Adam and Eve chased out of technological paradise - on the left panel - are replaced by chimerical beings, robots from popular culture (Star Wars, Spyro the Dragon, Kermit...) and a man who appears to be connected to cables on the right panel... a dystopia that echoes the questions society is asking today about social networks, the human being and artificial intelligence. As you can see, once you're home, these works will fuel endless discussions.
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