The White Work (Galerie Eolia catalogue)

JEAN-MARC PHILIPPE

Recent works 1976 - 1984

THE WHITE WORK

Galerie Eolia 10, rue de Seine Paris VI 326 36 54

Presentation text (original English version, 1985)

Translation printed in the catalogue ; unsigned.

Looking at J.-M. Philippe’s paintings makes you somewhat ill at ease. You have the awkard impression that they are looking at you in a suggestive manner. As black Carmen’s eye or Caïn’s with their disturbing, inquisitive look that has such a hold on you, don’t try to escape, just enjoy it quietly.

Drawing lovers will certainly appreciate the artist’s talent and technique as well as his overwhelming imagination.

Even in the more academic indian ink drawings, the straight lines have the power to structure space.

In the series « Les Regards » J.-M. Philippe offers a more introspective approach; the white canvases are both a disconcerting and fascinating challenge : outburst, rebellion, struggle become art. « Rebellion is a nolbe thing, says J.-M. Philippe, it shows in man the spark of something else ». Bodies, blown-up within precise geometric datum, in an empty canvas, the emptiness of which draws attention; The skilful accuracy of the elements, both classical and contemporary result into an intricate system where past, present and future are linked, offering a multi-dimensional vision of man.

The more recent and peaceful series of « Les Sourires » are filled with the tenderness of gentle and smooth profiles bearing sensuous smiles and still as always inquiring eyes. There also, emptiness has a prominent part and we are only required to participate. They are subtle, delicate yet, incomplete images and the answer to those smiles can only be found within ourselves.

These works are the result of a specific approach, both philosophical and scientific of the artist. J.-M. Philippe takes interest in studying the intricate links between art and different fields of knowledge like Art and Science. He is always turned to other artistic expressions and even if he uses classical means, he is also able to use new technologies to work out different artistic concepts, such as operating a programme of image processing around a XVIth century Benin mask, and surrounding the earth with a circle of stars he calls « Celestial Wheel ». This audacious project has even reached the NASA.

Thus one can say that J.-M. Philippe offers an artistic scheme which generates into an original, radiant and coherent spirituality shown through the white series exhibited at the EOLIA GALERY.

Main solo and group exhibitions

• 1970: Continental Art Gallery New York
• 1971: Galerie Art du Monde, Paris
• 1973: Galerie Alexandre IOLAS, Paris
• 1974: Institut Français de Salonique (Greece)
• 1975: Galerie ATTALI, Paris
• 1976 to 80:
• FIAC Paris, Grand Palais, 1976-1977
• Kunst Messe, Basel, 1976
• Art Fair Washington, 1977
• Galerie Frédéric Gollong, St-Paul de Vence
• Musée d’Avallon
• Musée de Melun
• Centre Léonard-de-Vinci, Bordeaux
• Centre Georges-Pompidou (C.C.I.)
• Galerie Attali, Paris
• 1981: One Man Show, FIAC Paris, Grand Palais “Les dix-neuf Regards ou l’Œuvre blanche”
• 1982 :
• Exhibition at the U.L.B., Brussels (March–April)
• Exhibition, Galerie Alexandra Monett, Brussels, October/November
• Exhibition, Galerie France, Bordeaux, November/December
• 1983 :
• Exhibition, CHOSUN Art Gallery, Seoul (Korea), June/July
• Exhibition “Art Expo”, Dallas Market Hall, Texas, October
• Exhibition “Electra”, Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris, December 83/February 1984 (participation in the form of the presentation of a project: “The Great Celestial Wheel”)
• 1984 :
• Participation in the New York International Art Fair, April
• Tokyo, April, “New Otani” space, presentation of the “Celestial Wheel”
• Art and Technology exhibition “Phirama”, Marseille, October
• Exhibition with M. Ooka, Tokyo, Images analogiques [Analogue Images] (December)
• 1985: Galerie EOLIA

Writings by Jean-Marc Philippe

• Éditions “AUTREMENT”, LES IMMATÉRIAUX (March 1985): “Artistic Invention and its Metamorphosis”
• Journal “SPIRALE”, May 1985 issue: “Matrice culturelle et invention : leurs incidences sur un parcours artistique” [Cultural Matrix and Invention: Their Bearing on an Artistic Path]
• Journal “LEONARDO”, October 1985 issue: “L’espace, une nouvelle dimension pour l’Art” [Space, a New Dimension for Art]

Contributions by Jean-Marc Philippe

• At the conference “Art, Science, Technologie” organised by the Gulbekian Fondation, under the aegis of the “World Academy of Art and Science” and the “Académie Européenne des Arts des Sciences et des Lettres”, 22 and 23 February 1985, Paris.
• At the conference “Art, Science et Technique dans la modernité” at the Centre Georges Pompidou, 15 April 1985, Revue parlée.
• At the “European Philosophy Conference”, Athens, 24-28 June 1985.
• Introduced the Nouvelles Images [computer-generated images] into the exhibition “L’Art contemporain français”, Fundaçâo Bienal de Sao-Paulo, 7-14 March 1985.

Conferences and publications

1971

• Co-authors a book on computing and artistic creation, published by DENOEL: “Les Cerveaux non-humains” [Non-human Brains]
• Gives papers and writes articles on drugs and artistic creation, and on the psychological effects of sounds (conferences at the Hôpital Sainte-Anne).
• Article in the journal NOUVEAU PLANÈTE: “La Musique qui pense” [Music that Thinks]

1982

• Conference “Du Signe au Visage”, Université Libre de Bruxelles (17-18-19 March). Paper: “Que penser des Sociétés occidentales à partir des représentations de l’Humain qu’elles suscitent dans l’Art Contemporain” [What Are We to Think of Western Societies on the Basis of the Representations of the Human They Give Rise to in Contemporary Art]
• Congress “Art et Mathématiques”, Venice (2-3-4 June). Paper: “Les raisonnements caractéristiques de la pensée scientifique et l’intuition artistique sont-ils compatibles ? les Interfaces” [Are the Characteristic Reasonings of Scientific Thought and Artistic Intuition Compatible? Interfaces]
• Article in the journal SPIRALE no. 20-21: “Art et Science, vers un nouveau type de dialogue” [Art and Science: Towards a New Kind of Dialogue]

1983

• Paris, International Meeting on Systemic Science and its Applications, Paris VII, 18-19-20 May. Paper: “Vers un dialogue entre la Science Systémique et la création artistique via les Nouvelles Technologies” [Towards a Dialogue between Systemic Science and Artistic Creation via the New Technologies].

• Venice, Congress “l’Art, la Banque et l’Industrie”, 1-2-3 July. Paper: “De l’Image initiatique aux Nouvelles Images - Omniprésence et Importance” [From the Initiatory Image to the New Images – Omnipresence and Importance].

• Publication in Italian of the book (co-author): “Mathématica e Arte”, Édition Spirali.

• Article in the journal “H” no. 90 (November), “Art et Informatique” [Art and Computing].
• Article in the journal Spirale no. 30/31, November. “La deuxième Renaissance ou le réenchantement de la Conscience” [The Second Renaissance, or the Re-enchantment of Consciousness].
• Conference “La Techno-culture et la modernité”, Musée d’Art moderne, Paris, December.

1984

• Tokyo, April, as part of the congress “D’où vient l’Orient, où va l’Occident”. Paper: “Première approche des méthodes de création induites par les nouvelles technologies et l’intelligence artificielle” [A First Approach to the Methods of Creation Induced by New Technologies and Artificial Intelligence].
• Article in the journal “L’Hyppocampe”, April, on the Celestial Wheel.
• Article in the journal Spirale, “La Roue Céleste, Pyramide à l’échelle du XXIe siècle” [The Celestial Wheel, a Pyramid on the Scale of the 21st Century], May/June.
• Participation in the conference “Théâtre et Sciences de la Vie”, June, Maison de la Culture du Monde, including a text for the congress proceedings (Unesco publication).
• Systemics congress, Paris VII, “La Théorie des Systèmes appliquée à la conception d’images analogiques” [Systems Theory Applied to the Design of Analogue Images], June.
• Milan, Congress “La Finance et la Culture”, November. Paper: “Rôle de l’Invention sur la matrice culturelle” [The Role of Invention in the Cultural Matrix].

Biographical note

JEAN-MARC PHILIPPE

Born 30 October 1939, French.

Until 1966 he divided his activity between music, science and painting.

First solo exhibition in 1967, then in 1968/1969, in New York and Paris.

A stay in the United States in 1971 led him to abandon tachiste abstraction. He then tried to bind his painting to everyday lived experience, but this protest dimension soon disappeared in favour of a stripping-down of the canvas, limited to two colours and marked with white reference signs.

Extract from BENEZIT.

Select bibliography

Texts by Annick PELY, Geneviève BREERETTE, André PARINAUD, Gilles PLAZY, M.-C. VOLPIN, Denis PICARD, F.-R. KORSAKOFF, J.-M. TASSET, Jacques SOJCHER, MAKOTO OOKA.

Works reproduced

1 — Gaze
2 — Smile
3 — Instantané [Snapshot]
4 — Instantané
5 — Instantané
6 — Instantané
7 — Smile “La Belle Ferronnière”
8 — Gaze
9 — Gaze
10 — Smile, a Wink at the Grande Odalisque
11 — Smile
12 — Gaze
13 — Smile
14 — Gaze
15 — Smile
16 — Gaze
17 — Gaze
18 — Smile

Colophon

Photographs of the works: Daniel Frasnay
Printing: LIS 33 - LIBOURNE - (56) 51.03.32
Layout: Daniel Frasnay and Françoise Francisci
Publication director: Françoise Francisci
© Eolia SA 1985 ISBN 2-905536-01-2 LEGAL DEPOSIT JUNE 1985