Hervé Télémaque (5 November 1937 – 10 November 2022) 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 Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

of Haitian origin, associated with the

surrealism Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

and the narrative figuration movements. He lived and worked in Paris from 1961 on.

Biography

Télémaque was born in

Port-au-Prince Port-au-Prince ( , ; ht, Pòtoprens ) is the capital and most populous city of Haiti. The city's population was estimated at 987,311 in 2015 with the metropolitan area estimated at a population of 2,618,894. The metropolitan area is define ...

, Haiti. Following a health problem, he had to give up his hopes of competing in sports. In 1957, when

François Duvalier François Duvalier (; 14 April 190721 April 1971), also known as Papa Doc, was a Haitian politician of French Martiniquan descent who served as the President of Haiti from 1957 to 1971. He was elected president in the 1957 general election on ...

came to power, he left Haiti for New York City and joined the

Art Student's League The Art Students League of New York is an art school at 215 West 57th Street in Manhattan, New York City, New York. The League has historically been known for its broad appeal to both amateurs and professional artists. Although artists may stu ...

until 1960, when his teacher, the painter Julian Levi, encouraged his artistic vocation. During his stay in the United States, where he frequented museums, he was simultaneously intellectually nourished by

abstract expressionism Abstract expressionism is a post–World War II art movement in American painting, developed in New York City in the 1940s. It was the first specifically American movement to achieve international influence and put New York at the center of the ...

, then

, as used and reinterpreted by American artists ( De Kooning,

Lam Lam or LAM may refer to: Organizations * Laguna Art Museum, California, US * Lam Eng Rubber, a Malaysian manufacturer * Lam Research, American semiconductor equipment company * LAM Mozambique Airlines, flag carrier airline of Mozambique * Librar ...

, etc.), and in particular by the influence of Arshile Gorky. As early as 1959, his painting entitled ''Sirène'' ( Musée Sainte-Croix) marked his uniqueness. Télémaque wanted to be reality-based and escape abstraction: even the title refers to his daily life, evoking the boats sirens he heard from his room in Brooklyn Heights. With ''L'Annonce faite à Marie'' (Musée des beaux-arts de Dole, FNAC), which recalls his marriage the same year with Maël Pilié, the theme of sexuality, especially present at the beginning of his work, is announced (''Histoire sexuelle'', 1960 ; ''Ciel de lit'' n°3, 1962, Musée d'art moderne et d'art contemporain de Nice ; ''Femme merveille'', 1963,Institut d'art contemporain de Villeurbanne). He was disappointed by the segregationist atmosphere in the United States¹. (''Toussaint Louverture in New York'', 1960, Dole Museum). In 1961, he came to France and settled in Paris. He frequented the

surrealists Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

there, without formally joining the group. But it was in the precepts of population art (comic strip, use of the

episcope Episcope may refer to: *An opaque projector *The ministry of Oversight within various Christian Churches and in ecumenical dialogue. *An indirect vision device similar to a periscope used in armoured fighting vehicle An armoured fighting vehi ...

, then in 1966 use of

acrylic Acrylic may refer to: Chemicals and materials * Acrylic acid, the simplest acrylic compound * Acrylate polymer, a group of polymers (plastics) noted for transparency and elasticity * Acrylic resin, a group of related thermoplastic or thermosett ...

) that he truly found his very particular way, while defending European creation, more critical of society. Since 1962, he took part in the adventure of Narrative Figuration, bringing together artists such as Bernard Rancillac, Eduardo Arroyo, Peter Klasen,

Öyvind Fahlström Öyvind Axel Christian Fahlström (December 28, 1928 – November 9, 1976) was a Swedish multimedia artist. Biography Fahlström was born in Sao Paulo, Brazil, as the only child to Frithjof Fahlström and Karin Fahlström. In July 1939 he was s ...

, and

Jacques Monory Jacques Monory (25 June 1924 – 17 October 2018) was a French painter and filmmaker whose work, highly influenced by photography and cinema, is an allegory of the contemporary world with a focus on the violence of everyday reality. His canvase ...

, which the critic Gérald Gassiot-Talabot gathered in 1964, at the request of Télémaque and Rancillac, in an exhibition entitled "Mythologies quotidiennes". From 1962 to 1964, he produced one of his most original series, in particular in the form of diptychs, where pieces of anatomy², accompanied by visual metaphors named "fictions"; (cross, arrow, weapon, underwear, urn, mask) and comments, sometimes simply written in chalk or pencil, flow on an initially white background (''Le voyage'', 1962 ; ''Portrait de famille'', 1962, Fondation Gandur pour l'Art; ''Etude pour une carte du tendre'', 1963;''My Darling Clementine'', 1963, MNAM, etc.). A statement made to art critic Alexia Guggémos in a long interview published by Somogy Editions (''Confidence'', published in 2015). Télémaque intended to compose his own vocabulary, going beyond a narrative speech with a socio-political aim (''One of 36,000 Marines'', 1963, Gandur Foundation), from which he moves away from 1967, to the benefit of an inner poetic and jubilant universe, more hermetic, enriched by the experience of his own psychoanalysis started in 1958 with Georges Devereux, and this time inspired by the works of De Chirico, René Magritte or Marcel Duchamp. Thus, in his paintings are found evocative everyday objects, notably of his lived experience in Haiti, and of multiple interpretations at the will of the spectator, complex reading images such as riddles to be deciphered (toothless head, Baron Samedi's white cane, sports shoes and equipment, camping furniture, and tents, etc.), despite the exegesis performed by the art critic Anne Tronche in 2003. In 1964, the artist adopted the clear line; inspired by Hergé (''Petit Célibataire un peu nègre et assez joyeux'', 1964, MNAM), then introduced objects on the canvas in 1966 with his series of "Combine paintings", evoking those of

Robert Rauschenberg Milton Ernest "Robert" Rauschenberg (October 22, 1925 – May 12, 2008) was an American painter and graphic artist whose early works anticipated the Pop art movement. Rauschenberg is well known for his Combines (1954–1964), a group of artwor ...

(1953–1964) and even more, those contemporary to

Martial Raysse Martial Raysse (born 12 February 1936 in Golfe-Juan) is a French artist and actor. He lives in Issigeac, France. He holds the record for the most expensive work sold by a living French artist. Biography Raysse was born in a ceramicist family in ...

(''Confidence'', 1965, Fondation Gandur; ''Touareg, pèlerinage avec ressemblances'', Lille Métropole Musée d'art moderne, d'art contemporain et d'art brut, 1966. Between 1968 and 1969, he stopped painting to practice only assemblage with his "lean sculptures", like Duchamp's

ready-made A readymade ( found object) is a piece of art created from undisguised, but often modified, objects or products that are not normally considered art. Readymade may also refer to: * Prefabrication, the practice of assembling components in a factor ...

sculptures. In sculpture, as in painting, it is a question of making ordinary things or objects surprising, of opening up possibilities of multiple meanings to icons or fragments of icons, originally univocal. Télémaque, returned to painting in 1970, with his series "Les Passages" and "Suites à Magritte", adopting a refined style formed by solid colours (''Caca-Soleil !'', 1970, MNAM, of duchampian spirit), and indulged in drawing and collages from 1974, with his series "Selles" in 1977, then "Maisons rurales" in 1980. In 1973, he returned for the first time to Haiti to see his mother, where he resourced his imaginary. Then in 1976 he began large acrylic paintings, mainly with new shapes in

ellipse In mathematics, an ellipse is a plane curve surrounding two focus (geometry), focal points, such that for all points on the curve, the sum of the two distances to the focal points is a constant. It generalizes a circle, which is the special ty ...

or tondo, in view of the exhibition organized in 1976 by the ARC at the Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris. In 1985 he became a naturalized French citizen and, among other public purchasing orders Hôpital de la Salpêtrière in 1984, RER station of the

Musée d'Orsay The Musée d'Orsay ( , , ) ( en, Orsay Museum) is a museum in Paris, France, on the Left Bank of the Seine. It is housed in the former Gare d'Orsay, a Beaux-Arts railway station built between 1898 and 1900. The museum holds mainly French art ...

in 1986), he received an order for a 13 meters long monumental mural Vallée de l'Omo, created in 1986 for the Cité des sciences et de l'industrie de La Villette and that also for ''Maman'' at the Hôpital de la Salpêtrière. In 1986, he also had his first solo exhibition in the Caraïbe with about twenty paintings exhibited at the Casa de las Americas, during the 2nd Biennale de La Havana. From the 1990s onwards, Télémaque continued his research through large-format charcoal drawings, initiated in 1992, and surprising low-reliefs, where the jigsaw replaces the pencil. Marked by the illness, then the death of his mother in 1993, and undoubtedly by the memory of the

voodoo Voodoo may refer to: Religions * African or West African Vodun, practiced by Gbe-speaking ethnic groups * African diaspora religions, a list of related religions sometimes called Vodou/Voodoo ** Candomblé Jejé, also known as Brazilian Vodu ...

that was reigning in Haiti, he approached the theme of mourning in a darker way (bat, skull) and did his own magic in creating blends mixing coffee grounds with coloured pigments, to give them a sensual heaviness. After the exhibition "Charcoal and coffee grounds – Mourning: drawing, the object", at the Louis Carré & Cie gallery in 1994 (catalogue prefaced by Yves Michaud), Télémaque exhibited "Works after nature"; (catalogue prefaced by Philippe Curval), at the Electricité de France foundation in 1995. His double exhibition at the Foire internationale d'art contemporain (Louis Carré & Cie gallery stand and Marwan Hoss gallery stand) was followed by four retrospectives, first at Electra – EDF Foundation in Paris, at the "Electrical Workshop"; in Johannesburg (South Africa) in 1997, at IVAM in Valence (Spain) in 1998, then at the Tanlay Art Centre (Yonne) in summer 1999. The 2000s saw a return to African sources, which the " negritude"; movement claims to be its own, and to a fresh look at French political events, possibly tinged with humour. In 2000, he returned to an activity that he had not practiced for many years, book illustration. After several stays in Africa, Télémaque produced a series of acrylic paintings entitled "Trottoirs d'Afrique", presented in 2001 at the Louis Carré & Cie gallery (catalogue prefaced by Gérard Durozoi). Nevertheless, and despite a career path which was naturally part of the evolution and intellectual questioning of 20th century modern art, the evocation of his country and origins, even metaphorically indirect, never departed from his work (''Afrique'' et ''Toussaint Louverture à New York'', 1960; ''Venus Hottentote'' et ''Comics pour Harlem'', 1962 ; ''My Darling Clementine'' and ''Black Magic'', 1963; ''Voir ELLE'' et ''Banania 1'', 1964; ''Convergence'', 1966; ''

'', ''le fils prodigue'', 1970; ''Le Silence veille à Saint-Marc'' (Haiti), 1975; ''Afrique'', 1980; ''La Mère-patrie'', 1981; ''Mère Afrique'', 1982; ''Le Voyage d'Hector Hyppolite en Afrique n°1'', 2000 ; ''Deep South'', 2001, etc.). ''Fonds d'actualité n°1'' (at the MNAM) is an indirect tribute to the satirical cartoonists

Plantu Jean Plantureux (born March 23, 1951 in Paris), who goes by the professional name Plantu, is a French cartoonist specializing in political satire. His work has regularly appeared in the French newspaper ''Le Monde'' since 1972. Early life Jean P ...

and Pancho, with the figure of

Jacques Chirac Jacques René Chirac (, , ; 29 November 193226 September 2019) was a French politician who served as President of France from 1995 to 2007. Chirac was previously Prime Minister of France from 1974 to 1976 and from 1986 to 1988, as well as Ma ...

, then "elected as in Africa" with 82.21% of the votes. In 2002, the IUFM of Lyon made an exhibition around this large painting and coffee grounds objects. On the occasion of the publication of a first monograph by Anne Tronche at Flammarion, in "La Création contemporaine"; collection, Louis Carré & Cie gallery presents on its stand at Fiac 2003 an exhibition bringing together a set of major works from the 1960s, entitled "Paris 1961". In 2005, he created a cycle of three monumental murals for the courtroom of the Court House in

Laval Laval means ''The Valley'' in old French and is the name of: People * House of Laval, a French noble family originating from the town of Laval, Mayenne * Laval (surname) Places Belgium * Laval, a village in the municipality of Sainte-Ode, Luxem ...

. In 2010, following the

2010 Haiti earthquake A disaster, catastrophic Moment magnitude scale, magnitude 7.0 Mw earthquake struck Haiti at 16:53 local time (21:53 UTC) on Tuesday, 12 January 2010. The epicenter was near the town of Léogâne, Ouest (department), Ouest department, a ...

of January 12, Télémaque sponsored the "Haiti Action Artists" auction, which aimed to give Haitian artists the means to rework and to create durable solutions. A retrospective exhibition of his work dedicated was held by the Musée national d'art moderne at the Centre Pompidou from February 25, 2015, to May 18, 2015, with 74 paintings, drawings, collages, objects, and assemblages, replicated at the

Musée Cantini The Musée Cantini is a museum in Marseilles that has been open to the public since 1936. The museum specializes in modern art, especially paintings from the first half of the twentieth century. The building The musée Cantini building was bui ...

, then in 2016 at the Fondation Clément in Martinique, with a selection of about 50 paintings directly related to the West Indies and Africa.Exposition Hervé Télémaque, Fondation Clément, 2016
site fondation-clement.org The MoMA ( Museum of Modern Art) acquired a painting from the New York years ''No Title (The Ugly American)'' thanks to the patronage of Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis in honour of

Jerry Speyer Jerry I. Speyer (born June 23, 1940) is an American real estate developer. He is one of two founding partners of the New York real estate company Tishman Speyer, which controls the Rockefeller Center. Early life and education Speyer was born in M ...

, three personalities close to the New York Museum. A painting of his was exhibited at the Guttklein Fine Art Gallery in Paris in 2018. In this exhibition entitled "Jalons", Télémaque for the first time exhibited ''Témoins'' (1998) a mural painting symbolizing a return to his Haitian roots. In 2019, he created a surprise at the Rabouan Moussion gallery in Paris where, in the exhibition "L'inachevée conception", he presented an imposing canvas of ten meters long. Produced in the calm of his workshop in Verneuil-sur-Avre in Normandy, the painting ''Al l'en Guinée'' (2016–18) evokes the fantasized journey of a long-distance walker. "It's a hike on life" laughed the painter known for his metaphorical images, steep wefts, and diversionary beacons. In "randonnée"; infuses the idea of a long-distance trip. Is it death or a joyful return to the land of the ancestors?

Collective exhibitions (selection)

* 1962: Paris, Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris, ''Art latino-américain à Paris'', with Jorge Camacho, Simona Ertan, Joaquin Ferrer, Eduardo Jonquieres, Wifredo Lam, Roberto Matta, Jesus Rafael Soto... * 1964: He participates in the exposition Mythologies quotidiennes, organised at musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, associating him with the Narrative Figuration, * 1968: Cassel (Hesse), Documenta IV et

Venise Venice ( ; it, Venezia ; vec, Venesia or ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto region. It is built on a group of 118 small islands that are separated by canals and linked by over 400 bridges. The islan ...

Biennale de Venise The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

, * 1972: Paris, Grand Palais, exposition Douze ans d'art contemporain, * 1976: Paris, MAMVP, rétrospective à l'ARC, * 1980: Recherche Art et Industrie de Renault, * 1982: Paris, Grand Palais, Foire internationale d'art contemporain (FIAC), galerie Adrien Maeght, * 1996: Foire internationale d'art contemporain, galerie Louis Carré & Cie et galerie Marwan Hoss, * 2006: Paris, Grand Palais, La Force de l'art, * 2006: Paris, galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Il était une fois Walt Disney. Aux sources de l'art des studios Disney, * 2008: Paris, galeries nationales du Grand Palais, Figuration narrative. Paris, 1960–1972, * 2009: * 2009: Paris, Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Dans l'œil du critique. Bernard Lamarche-Vadel et les artistes * 2011: Paris, musée du Louvre, salle de la Chapelle, Musée Monde (dans le cadre de l'exposition Le Louvre invite Jean-Marie G. Le Clézio) * 2014: Paris, Grand Palais, Haïti, deux siècles de création artistique, 19 November 2014–15 February 2015 * 2016: Munich,

Haus der Kunst The ''Haus der Kunst'' (, ''House of Art'') is a non-collecting modern and contemporary art museum in Munich, Germany. It is located at Prinzregentenstraße 1 at the southern edge of the Englischer Garten, Munich's largest park. History Na ...

, Ockwui Enwezor Post War * 2022: Paris, Musée de l'Histoire de l'immigration, « ''Paris and nowhere else'' »

Solo exhibitions (selection)

* 1964: London, Hanover Gallery * 1964: Paris, galerie Mathias Fels * 1965: Rome, L'Attico * 1967: Paris, galerie Mathias Fels * 1971: Paris, galerie Mathias Fels "Passage" (Achat d'une œuvre par le Président Pompidou). * 1979: Paris, Zurich, galerie Maeght "Selles" * 1981: Paris, galerie Adrien Maeght * 1986: Casa de las Americas, dans le cadre de la IIe biennale de La Havana. * 1989: Paris, galerie Jacqueline Moussion, first personal exposure, New York 1960. * 1991: Paris, galerie Jacqueline Moussion, retrospective from 1973 and series La Chambre noire. * 1994: Paris, galerie Louis Carré, Fusain et marc de café – Deuil : le dessin, l'objet. * 1995: Retrospective at Electra Fondation in Paris, Œuvres d'après nature. * 1997: Johannesburg, retrospective at Electrical workshop. * 1998: Valencia, retrospective at

Institut Valencià d'Art Modern The Institut Valencià d'Art Modern (; es, link=no, Instituto Valenciano de Arte Moderno; English: "Valencian Institute of Modern Art"), also known by the acronym IVAM, was the first center of modern art created in Spain, opening in 1989 in the ...

of Valencia. * 1999: Centre d'art de

Tanlay Tanlay () is a commune in the Yonne department in Bourgogne-Franche-Comté in north-central France. See also * Château de Tanlay * Communes of the Yonne department The following is a list of the 423 communes of the Yonne department of Franc ...

, Hervé Télémaque: des Modes & Travaux et creation of an original work for the

stamp Stamp or Stamps or Stamping may refer to: Official documents and related impressions * Postage stamp, used to indicate prepayment of fees for public mail * Ration stamp, indicating the right to rationed goods * Revenue stamp, used on documents to ...

of France commemorating the abolition of slavery, issued in April. * 2001: Paris, galerie Louis Carré & Cie, Trottoirs d'Afrique. * 2005: Paris, musée de la Poste, Hervé Télémaque. Du coq à l'âne (rétrospective). * 2009: Paris, galerie Louis Carré & Cie, Combine painting 1965–1969 * 2010: Baie-Mahault (Guadeloupe), Hervé Télémaque is the guest of honor of the 2nd edition of "Art Bemao", a modern and contemporary art event that presents a current look at the visual arts in Guadeloupe * 2011: Paris, galerie Louis Carré & Cie, La Canopée, The Brown paper bag * 2013: Paris, galerie Louis Carré & Cie, Passages et autres (1970–1980) * 2015: Paris, Centre Pompidou, 25 February-18 May * 2015: Musée de Louviers * 2015: Marseille,

* 2016: Le François, Martinique, Fondation Clément * 2018: Paris, galerie Guttklein Fine Art, "Jalons" 1, 2 * 2019: Paris, galerie Rabouan Moussion, "L'inachevée conception" * 2021: Londres, Serpentine Gallery, "A Hopscotch of the Mind" * 2023: Etats-Unis, Musée d'art d'Aspen, "A Hopscotch of the Mind"

Acquisitions (selection)

The Centre Pompidou's National Museum of Modern Art owns 18 artworks by Télémaque. Among them, 8 paintings and one sculpture added in 2014 thanks to a donation from the artist. The MOMA possess three of Télémaque's artworks including ''No title (The Ugly American)'' .

Publications (selection)

* ''Hervé Télémaque – Monographie'', by Anne Tronche, Groupe Flammarion (2003) * ''Confidence d'Hervé Télémaque'', interviewed by Alexia Guggémos, Somogy Éditions d'Art (maison d'édition) (2015) * ''Télémaque'', by Gérard Durozoi, David Lemaire, Alexia Guggémos,

Flammarion Flammarion may refer to: * Camille Flammarion (1842–1925), French astronomer and author * Gabrielle Renaudot Flammarion (1877–1962), French astronomer, wife of Camille Flammarion * Flammarion engraving by unknown artist; appeared in a book by C ...

(2015)

Sources

*
Hervé Télémaque
video interview, encyclopédie audiovisuelle de l'art contemporain *
Hervé Télémaque, galerie Louis Carré & Cie
Galerie Louis Carré & Cie *
Hervé Télémaque, Bernard Vasseur, éditions Cercle d'art, 2013, 128 pages
cercledart.com *
Hervé Télémaque, Résultats de ventes aux enchères passées
artnet.com *
Hervé Télémaque, exposition au Centre Pompidou du 25 février au 18 mai 2015
, centrepompidou.fr *
"Curator Yasmil Raymond discusses what was so “ugly” about Télémaque's America."
moma.org *
Hervé Télémaque
Rabouan Moussion Gallery, artist page]

Notes and references

{{DEFAULTSORT:Telemaque, Herve 1937 births 2022 deaths 20th-century Haitian painters Haitian male painters Artists from Port-au-Prince Haitian emigrants to France Surrealist artists Recipients of the Legion of Honour Recipients of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres 20th-century French painters 20th-century French male artists 21st-century French painters