Porte du Dragon Print

Born in Paris in1964, Hélène Jacqz grew up in Fontenay-aux-Roses. She moved to Paris in 1982 and enrolled at the National School of Fine Arts in Paris (Beaux- Arts) in 1986, drawing from nature and at Le Louvre. An admirer of the Nabis, she obtained her Beaux- Arts diploma in 1991 as well as two scholarships, in 1991 and 1992, to study at the Parsons School of Art in New York (Fulbright and Lavoisier). She returned to France in 1996. Since then, she works in her studio in Montrouge.A key moment of the early years of Helen Jacqz in the United States was her encounter with Jazz. She found in it an echo of her painted work, and at its core the delicate balance between freedom and constraint called improvisation. Jazz requests to keep time on a given tempo and to improvise within the harmonies of a theme with the best possible tones and sonority. Painting unfolds in the limited space of the canvas and juggles with shapes and colors.The American action painting, like “tachism” and “gestual painting” in Europe are exactly contemporary phenomena. Both constitute a language that never stopped, since its inception, to forge new stories As in jazz the purity of tone, in action painting, the speed of the movement and the simplicity of a stroke can only be acquired after a long and patient apprenticeship. In this respect, it is interesting to know that Helen Jacqz graduated in the School of Fine Arts in Paris, and was once able to paint with perfection small still-lifes in the manner of Vuillard. But breaking free from the academic shackles, she let the colors explode and take their flight in a joyful expression of freedom. She unveils for us unknown shores. Everyday words also seem too awkward when one wants to describe Helen Jacqz’s paintings. It feels as if you wore heavy wooden shoes when you should waltz, swirl and soar. Everything is upside down, way in and way out.This is an abstract version of the topsy-turvy!Yellow, blue, red, purple and white with a remarkable purity, dancing together, sometimes clashing but never crashing, never losing their individuality. Even sprayed fine droplets end up forming the perfect circle of a ring of smoke! Forms overlap, dock and jostle in a joyous uproar, never sinking in darkness or confusion. Her paintings are inhabited by rhythm and light. If you think I exaggerate, go ahead and look. And compare. Few painters know how to combine with such mastery, balance and imbalance, construction and abandonment to impulsivity.