Gérard Deschamps (born 1937) is a French
contemporary art
Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic co ...
ist associated with the
Nouveau réalisme
Nouveau réalisme (French: new realism) refers to an artistic movement founded in 1960 by the art critic Pierre Restany and the painter Yves Klein during the first collective exposition in the Apollinaire gallery in Milan. Pierre Restany wrot ...
movement.
Career
Deschamps was born in
Lyon
Lyon,, ; Occitan language, Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, third-largest city and Urban area (France), second-largest metropolitan area of F ...
, France. His first exhibition took place in 1955 at the Gallery Fachetti in
Paris
Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...
. At this time he abandoned traditional
oil painting
Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments with a medium of drying oil as the binder. It has been the most common technique for artistic painting on wood panel or canvas for several centuries, spreading from Europe to the rest of ...
techniques, which he said lacked flexibility, and turned to making
collages that incorporate pictures of items from
Manufrance catalogs. In 1957, he exhibited at the Galerie du Haut Pave in Paris paintings made of rags and pleating and in November that year, he was sent to
Algeria
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for 27 months of military service.
Back in Paris, in 1960 he met
Raymond Hains
Raymond Hains (9 November 1926 – 28 October 2005) was a prominent French visual artist and a founder of the Nouveau réalisme movement. In 1960, he signed, along with Arman, François Dufrêne, Yves Klein, Jean Tinguely, Jacques Ville ...
and
Jacques Villeglé and officially joined the
New Realist group in 1961 (a year after its official founding). That year he began using U.S. Army tarps with fluorescent colors in his work. He also worked with rags from Japanese and Belgian advertising, as well as sheets of plastic kitchenware patchwork. In the same period, he also used armor plates and metal enclosures that served to isolate aircraft engines.
In 1965 he created ''bananas'', made of folded and colored wire, which can be up to 8 meters long and can produce
moiré pattern
In mathematics, physics, and art, moiré patterns ( , , ) or moiré fringes are large-scale interference patterns that can be produced when an opaque ruled pattern with transparent gaps is overlaid on another similar pattern. For the moiré ...
s.
In 1970 Deschamps moved to
La Châtre
La Châtre () is a commune in the Indre department in central France.
Population
Personalities
*It was the birthplace of Henri de Latouche and Emile Acollas. André Boillot the auto racing driver crashed here in 1932 and died from his injur ...
, home of his grandparents.
Since then, his creative activity is ongoing, and he shows in exhibitions and galleries in Paris and abroad.
In 1980, Deschamps produced playful outfits made of assemblies of
swimwear,
balloon
A balloon is a flexible bag that can be inflated with a gas, such as helium, hydrogen, nitrous oxide, oxygen, and air. For special tasks, balloons can be filled with smoke, liquid water, granular media (e.g. sand, flour or rice), or light so ...
s,
skateboard
A skateboard is a type of sports equipment used for skateboarding. They are usually made of a specially designed 7-8 ply maple plywood deck and polyurethane wheels attached to the underside by a pair of skateboarding trucks.
The skateboarder ...
s and
surfboards, which bring
Pop Art to mind. In the 1990s, he created colorful
beach ball
''Beach Ball'' is a 1965 American beach party movie starring Edd Byrnes and partly financed by Roger Corman.Ed. J. Philip di Franco, ''The Movie World of Roger Corman'', Chelsea House Publishers, 1979, p. 145
It features appearances by The Supre ...
blends packed in nets, and then, in 2001, skateboards.
Main exhibitions
*1955: Galerie Fachetti, Paris
*1957: Galerie Colette Allendy, Paris
*1962: Galerie J, Paris; Galerie Ursula Girardon, Paris
*1963: Galleria Appolinaire, Milan
*1964: Galerie Florence Houston Brown, Paris
*1965: Galerie Ad Libidum, Anvers
*1966: Galleria l'Elefante, Venise
*1979: Galerie Dominique Marches, Chateauroux
*1988: Galerie Le Gall Peyroulet, Paris
*1990: Galerie Le Gall Peyroulet, Paris
*1991: Galerie Le Gall Peyroulet, Paris
*1993: Galerie Der Spiegel, Cologne
*1998: Fondation Cartier, Paris
*1998: Galerie de La Châtre, Paris
*2000: Galerie de La Châtre, Paris
*2002: Galleria Peccolo Livorno
*2002: Galerie de La Châtre, Paris
*2003: Musée de l'Hospice Saint Roch, Issoudun
*2004 Musée des Beaux-Arts de Dole
*2005 Château d'Ars La Châtre; Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans
*2006 Le Safran Amiens
*2007 Galerie de La Châtre, Paris
*2008 Musee des ARTS DECORATIFS Paris
*2009 ''Châteauroue'', manifestation d'art contemporain à Châteauroux
*2009 ''solo show'' FIAC Paris galerie Martine et Thibaul de La Châtre
*2011 Lieu D Art Contemporain L Arboretum Argenton sur Creuse
*2012 Wave Attack; l Identité Remarquable Orleans
*2013 Deschamps / Hains Musée de l Hospice Saint Roch Issoudun
*2013 Deschamps / Maucotel Lieu D Art Contemporain Montlucon
*2014 Deschamps : Ma Premiere Galerie Paris
*2016 Du Passé Au Present : Galerie Gilles Peyroulet Paris
*2018 Paris Art FAIR Galerie Grimont
*2018 ''Skate Boards et Street Art'' Luxembourg Art Fair
Sources
* ''Dictionnaire de l'art moderne et contemporain'', nlle. éd., Paris, Éditions Hazan, 2006, 194 pages (French)
www.gerarddeschamps.org(French)
* ''Gérard Deschamps, homo accessoirus'', interview with Hélène Kelmachter, Actes Sud, 1998 (French)
* Gerard Deschamps, ''Retrospective'', Musee de L Hospice Saint-Roch Issoudun et Musée des Beaux Arts de Dole
* Gerard Deschamps, Galerie Martine et Thibault de La Chatre FIAC 2009
* Gerard Deschamps, L Arboretum Lieu d Art Contemporain Argenton Sur Creuse 2011
* Gerard Deschamps, Editions du Regard 2017
* Gerard Deschamps, Editions Art Passion Luxembourg Art Fair 2018
External links
Non official website dedicated to Gérard Deschamps, in French, with many pictures
{{DEFAULTSORT:Deschamps, Gerard
1937 births
Living people
Artists from Lyon
French contemporary artists