Jean Lerin
Jean Lerin
Avignon, France
About Jean Lerin
Born in 1956. Lives and works near Avignon (France). About the paintings of Jean Lérin by Philippe Dagen, art critic to the daily "le monde", and it's professor in contemprary art to the Sorbonne unniversity. "An extravagant simplicity" Jean Lérin’s arrival onto the visual arts scene definitely is an extravagant one. And not because of too much weirdness either, quite the opposite: because of too much simplicity! It is the kind of arrival one is afraid to talk about actually, for fear of being accused of romanticizing it and creating a legend. If memory serves me right, here is how it all happened: After a number of phone calls and, through my own fault I fear, a number of months, I met Jean Lérin on a fine July day at Marseilles’ central station. Heading for his studio in his car and as I was marveling at his speedy driving in such a big and busy town, he replied that it was not that surprising given that he lives in Marseilles and knows it rather well; also, he had been a race course driver for a number of years. I was amazed. A race course driver turned painter! Questioned on the subject, he explained that he had rather successfully driven one-seaters, but that he would have needed more money than he had gathered to make it all the way to stardom. Since then, he had devoted himself entirely to painting and drawing. I gathered from all this that he was self-taught, which he confirmed. By the time we reached his studio I did not really have that much more information about him and his life. With the benefit of hindsight I now assume his discretion was by choice: he did not want any interference between his paintings and my eye, nothing be it a biography or any psychology. It was all very simple, really, very intriguing too. Calmly and almost silently, Lérin showed me one painting after the next, as comfortably as the smallness of the studio allowed. This was not a real problem actually, and looking back, what I remember most is not the exiguity of the place but the powerful light, both intense and slack. And it is in this beautiful light that the nudes appeared. I seem to recall I did not hesitate long; I understood rather quickly that those nudes and full length or seated portraits were exactly where they were meant to be, that it would be absurd to imagine changing anything; and that they were amazingly coherent. It was obvious that this painting stood by itself without the least bit of need for any explanations or theoretical justifications; that the chromatic abstinence was in perfect keeping with the immobility of the poses; that the lightness of the stroke matched the isolation of the bodies; and that it had to be so in order for this painting to be neither demonstrative nor pathetic or cruel, least of all not reduced to a stereotyped figurative imagery either, one that is so very fashionable these days. That painting exhibits nudes and close shots of faces, an ironical photo-realism inspired by Richter, and pushes them forward with insistence whereas Lérin does not display his nudes and portraits. He holds them back at that very moment when they start pulling away and becoming out of focus. Derision, pastiche or misappropriation do not interest him. Following a more internal necessity his painting has better things to do, be it trace keeping or print inscribing. Seeing those heads and body parts, I happened to think of the wax masks and castings which, in former days, used to preserve a corpse from total disappearance. Of course this is nothing but a personal thought, and a dangerous one to take any further as it could lead to believe that Lérin cultivates a spectral or ghostly genre, which would be most untrue. According to a personal method coupling slowness to swiftness, he stands close to the model, studies it, observes it, and then paints it....
Education:
self-educated
Events:
Presse / Publications
J.C Romilla " Midi Libre " 1987
Marc Hérissé. Gazette de l’Hôtel Drouot. 06 1991.
Marc Hérissé. Gazette de L’Hôtel Drouot. 01 1993.
Alain Moulis. Jean Lérin pour "les lieux du corps".
André Pirier. "Vivre l'art" 1995
André Pirier. "Des peintures, un tableau". 1996
Pierre Descargues. France Culture. 01 1997
Marie-Laure Duclos."Jean Lérin, peinture perception"1997
Philippe Dagen. Préface au catalogue de l’exposition à la galerie R.Y.Carrat. 2000.
Pierre Masset. Préface au catalogue de l’exposition à la galerie du Fort Napoléon.
Jean Christophe Vila. "Jean Lérin monte au Fort".
Annick Pégouret, pour l'exposition Jean Lérin à la galerie Alain Paire.
André Pirier. "L'expérience de la lumière".2002
Marie-Laure Duclos."Conversation dans l'atelier". 2003
Henry Stoul. "Pourquoi blanc?". 2003
Claire Fiorletta. Jean Lérin, exposition à L'espace Van-Gogh. La Provence 2006
Rosette Nicolaï, "Mise à Nu", pour l'exposition au "Pavillon de Lanfant". Aix-en-Provence.
Aurore Guibaud. Le Forum des Industries Culturelles. 2006.
Pierre Masset : "Le temps est une des dimensions du tableau " 2006.
Thomas W Kuhn, "la renaissance de la peinture à l'heure du nouveau millénaire". 2007
Cécile Marie. "French Touche, à la lumière de Bernard Lamarche-Vadel".2007
Richard Leydier. "Peinture ?!". 2007
Patrick Moquet. Théorie et pratique des arts. Editions PUP. 2008
2011/2012 : Revue officielle Automobile Club de Monaco
-2013 : "Jattends beaucoup de l'imprévu" par Pierre Paillet
-2014 : "Jean Lérin de face et d'échos" par Dominique Bosq
Exhibitions:
-1987 : Montpellier "traces" 101 dessins
-1989 : Abbaye de St- Maximin
-1989 : Villeurbanne. Collège d'échanges contemporains
-1991 : Arles. "Lieux du corps"
-1993 : Carcassonne. Tours Narbonnaises
-1997 : Galerie D'art des aéroports de paris
-1997 : Palais des congrès de Grasse
-1997 : Galerie Vergus. Lyon
-1998 : Rencontres du Cadran. Dax
-1999 : Galerie Vergus. Lyon
-2000 : Galerie Alain Paire. Aix-en-Provence
-2000 : Galerie Robert-Yves-Carrat. Paris
-2001 : Fort Napoléon. La Seyne-sur-Mer
-2001 : Galerie Marwan Hoss. Paris
-2004 : Le musée de la Vallée de L'Ubaye
-2005 : Le Pavillon de Lanfant. Aix-en-Provence
-2006 : Espace Van-Gogh. Arles
-2007 : Villa Tamaris-Pacha. Centre d'art contemporain.
-2008 : Maison de la Corse
-2008 : Galerie Mourlot Jeu de paume
-2010 : REG'art. Muret
-2011 : "Carrefour des arts" Avignon.
-2011 : Poursuites d'Art.Montpellier.
-2012 : Galerie Alain Paire. Aix-en-Provence.
-2013 : "Encuentro Mares Beal". Antequera, Espagne.
-2013 : Galerie Alain Paire. Aix-en-Provence.
-2014 : Lycée Saint-Exupery avec le Passage de l'Art : "L'art renouvelle le lycée et la ville".
-2014 : Château des Demoiselles du 13 juin au 20 septembre. La Motte 83920.
-2014 : Salon Base'Art.Espace Caquot, Fréjus.
-2014 : Suite "d'Encuentro Mares Beal".Burgos, Espagne.
-2014/2015 : Le Château de la Pioline. Aix-en-Provence.
-2015 : Suite "d'Encuentro Mares Beal".Bilbao, Espagne.
-2015 : Espace privé Christine Nadeau. Toulon.
-2017 : Espace Privé Xavier Pérusse. St-Germain-en-Laye.