Jean Messagier, French (1920 - 1999)
Born in 1920 in Paris, the artist considered by some the leader of the “abstracted paysagism”, turns over to his roots while settling in Franche-Comté since 1962. He then does not cease creating for, with and within this area which he likes so much jusqu? with its death in 1999.
Jean Messagier shares his childhood, in the Twenties and Thirties, between the trees of the Monceau park in Paris and the meadows of his grandfather towards Mathay. During first half of its life, it will live between Paris and the Franche-Comté. It follows studies to the college of Large-Chênois to Montbeliard then connects with Arts déco in Paris. Its first tables are figurative: portraits, landscapes, the edge of the Seine. Then quickly, it launches out in the abstract, it finds its style. “It was a creator not a maker as he said it, underlines Denys Schwechlen, vice-president of the club cyclist of Etupes and faithful friend. For him, to recopy reality, it was not to be a painter”. At the end of the Forties, for the first time, it carries out landscapes by forgetting conventions to keep only the light. Stop the prospects, the proportions, the models… It keeps only the light. On series, one recognizes vaguely hills, a valley, a forest… This light which it fascine so much, it just discovers it after the Second world war by furrowing Italy and Kabylie. One will speak about him, many years after, like the leader of the “abstract paysagism”. It plays on the colors and slack of the coats of paint by full rollings up.
This intaglio print was produced in an edition of 75. Published in 1972. It is signed and numbered by the artist, and a certificate of authenticity is included. This fine art print was created using an intaglio etching process. Intaglio printing is an intensive labor of love in which the artist creates an image with varnish or waxes over a zinc or copper plate, and burns the image into the metal using an acid solution. Inks are applied to the metal plate and each print is pulled by hand.