Henri Richelet (16 June 1944 – 18 March 2020) was a
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
painter.
Biography
Born to primary school teachers in a small village close to
Domrémy, the birthplace of
Joan of Arc, Henri Richelet spent his childhood and adolescence in the neighbouring small town of
Neufchâteau (Vosges) Neufchâteau may refer to:
Places
* Neufchâteau, Luxembourg Province, a city and municipality in the province of Luxembourg, Wallonia, Belgium
** Arrondissement of Neufchâteau, Belgium
** Lake Neufchâteau, a little artificial lake
** Château ...
. After his
Baccalauréat
The ''baccalauréat'' (; ), often known in France colloquially as the ''bac'', is a French national academic qualification that students can obtain at the completion of their secondary education (at the end of the ''lycée'') by meeting certain ...
, he first attended the École des Beaux-Arts in
Nancy, then the
École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in
Paris. In 1968, Richelet got the First Grand Prix of the
Casa de Velázquez,
Madrid in the etching category. He has been living in Paris since the seventies after having spent a few years in
Quebec. He was married to the Chilean painter
Ximena Armas.
Besides his participation in group exhibitions since 1963, Richelet made numerous solo exhibitions between 1965 and 2007 in
France,
Quebec and
Chile. He also regularly took part in several ''salons'' such as:
Salon d'Automne,
Salon de Mai, Salon ''Comparaisons'', Salon ''Grands et jeunes d’aujourd’hui'', Salon de Boulogne-Billancourt, Salon d'art contemporain de Montrouge, Salon ''Figuration critique''.
During the
COVID-19 pandemic, Richelet died of
COVID-19 on 18 March 2020 in Paris, aged 75.
Works
Richelet's provocative humour made him choose gloomy colours. Following the tradition of
Caravaggio
Michelangelo Merisi (Michele Angelo Merigi or Amerighi) da Caravaggio, known as simply Caravaggio (, , ; 29 September 1571 – 18 July 1610), was an Italian painter active in Rome for most of his artistic life. During the final four years of hi ...
, or of
Georges de La Tour in his ''Saint Jérôme pénitent'', he uses dark backgrounds to make livid and pallid flesh of tense, hunched up bodies stand out. ″''
Vanitas vanitatum, omnia vanitas,''″ he was fond of reminding us. This apophthegm haunts many works of Richelet, where his obsession with sex and death is expressed by a parallel between impotence and incapacity to create. One can be surprised, in some of his canvases, by the warm vermilion of a drape, a borrowing which would not have been renounced by the two old masters he so admired.
[Xuriguera G. 1987. ''op. cit.'', p. 261.]
Energetic lines in Richelet's paintings, drawings, and etchings oddly bring corpses, broken and mutilated in their physical beauty, on the verge of death.
Works in museum collections
*
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile :
**''Ne pas toucher'' : Indian ink on paper (51 x 60 cm).
* Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende, Santiago, Chile :
** ''Derniers outrages'' : oil painting on canvas (100 x 81 cm).
Solo exhibitions
* 1965 : Casino de Contrexéville, France.
* 1968 : Maison des Beaux-Arts, Paris.
* 1971 :
** Galerie Beaudelaire, Quebec.
** Galerie Chantauteuil, Quebec.
* 1974 : Galerie L’Art du Monde, Paris.
* 1976 : Galerie L'Estuaire, Honfleur, France.
* 1990 : Galerie Ceibo, Paris.
* 1996 : Hôtel de Ville, Neufchâteau, France.
* 1998 : Galerie Thermale, Contrexéville, France.
* 1999 : GalerÃa Modigliani, Viña del Mar, Chile.
* 2001 :
** Musée Roybet–Fould, Courbevoie, France.
** Galerie Aux créations du possible, Paris.
**
Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile.
* 2006 : GalerÃa Modigliani, Viña del Mar, Chile.
* 2007 : Le Trait d’Union, Neufchâteau, France.
Main group exhibitions
* 1969 & 1970 :
**
Casa de Velázquez, Madrid.
** Salle ''Comtesse de Caen'',
Institut de France, Paris.
* 1977–1978 : ''La Boîte'', ARC 2,
Musée d'Art Moderne, Paris.
* 1981 : ''Cent gravures contemporaines'', Aulnay-sous-Bois, France.
* 1982 & 1987 :
**
Casa de Velázquez, Madrid.
** Salle ''Comtesse de Caen'',
Institut de France, Paris.
* 1991 : ''Art contemporain international'', Château de la Bonnetière, Haut-Poitou, France.
* 1996 : ''3
e Festival de l’art actuel'', Château d’O, Orne, France.
* 1997 : ''Dialogue Est-Ouest'' Art Festival, Vayolles, France.
* 2000 : ''Variations'', Espace Belleville, Paris.
* 2003 : ''Hommage à S. Allende'', Ris-Orangis, France.
* 2004 : ''George Sand, interprétations'', Couvent des Cordeliers, Châteauroux, France.
Bibliography
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References
External links
*
Henri Richelet's official Web siteAnimated self-portraits (requires Adobe Flash Player)Recent pastelsRecent drawings
{{DEFAULTSORT:Richelet, Henri
1944 births
2020 deaths
People from Vosges (department)
École des Beaux-Arts alumni
20th-century French painters
20th-century French male artists
French male painters
21st-century French painters
21st-century French male artists
French etchers
French erotic artists
French lithographic artists
20th-century French printmakers
Deaths from the COVID-19 pandemic in France