Par
Fabrice Cahen
Published on
Nov 15 2024 at 6:00 p.m
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Jean Villain celebrates his fifty years of photography. Since he opened a studio in 1974.
Upon leaving Fine Arts in 1969, he traveled the world, notably to Extraa pop music magazine.
He followed the best groups of the seventies, before exhibiting from Paris to Los Angeles.
Pontoise (Val-d’Oise) was often used for his artistic inspiration. He returned it to this city, where he has lived for forty years, by signing, in September 2007, with Christophe Duvivier, then director of the Pontoise museums, an album on the city of the impressionists Pontoise, Time regained, back in time.
Postcards from the personal collection of the museum curator and today’s photos from the local photographer.
A specialist in abstract Art and modern art, he has curated exhibitions in Europe and beyond. An expertise which led him to launch a contemporary art fair.
It was naturally that he responded to the call from the municipality to direct the Art Actuel biennial, the first of its kind in Pontoise, which was held from November 4 to 10 at the Dôme.
From Montmartre to Pontoise
“It started from an experience of organizing a salon, shared with Frédéric Cubas-Glaser and who had created a Contemporary Art Salon in Vauréal,” confides Jean Villain, about the painter, who recently died.
He began by directing the biennial of contemporary arts with the République de Montmartre, in Paris. Famous collective launched in 1920 and aiming to maintain the spirit and mutual aid of Montmartre artists.
The biennial he is launching in Pontoise is part of the same approach with “more freedom in the choice of works and artists”, he specifies.
Patrick Morcello, deputy delegate for culture, gave him carte blanche and the result was a first high-quality show.
“The Pontoise biennial takes place on the same date as that of Montmartre, but every other year,” he emphasizes.
“I am in permanent contact with the artists that I will see at work in their studio”
“I do my shopping in Parisian salons”, where Jean Villain has developed a large network of artists. Art Capital, the Automne show… The galleries of Saint-Germain-des-Prés too.
“I am in permanent contact with the artists whom I see at work in their studio,” he explains. He prefers artists in eternal evolution.
In Pontoise, he brought thirty of them, photographers, sculptors, painters and designers. Véronique Almarine, Luc Babin, Xavier Blondeau, Alain Carretta, Karin Lansen, Lemiegre, Christian Tell, Claire Valverde, among others, as well as her local friend, Xavier Boggio.
He would like to point out that it is a contemporary art fair. “Unlike the Contemporary Art Fair, current art concerns artists of current expression and all living. »
From one living room to another
On November 30, 2024, it is at the Dôme that he will be in the spotlight for Photo Month, with Gilbert Perreau, another Pontois photographer.
They exhibit their work there around that of the deceased Sabine Weiss, who would have been 100 years old this year.
The renowned photographer signed an unusual album on Pontoise and exhibited it in 1992 at the Tavet-Delacour museum (in 1993 and 1998 in Cergy).
The public will find photos of his collaboration with Christophe Duvivier.
Archives that the City brought out for the occasion.
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