Who was Gaston Chaissac? Comprising some 350 works by this marginal,
yet eminently significant artist, an exceptional overview to be
seen absolument at the Jeu de Paume, sheds light on one of the
most mythical personalities of post-war French art. Although his
work was admired early on by prominent intellectuals such as Raymond
Queneau and Jean Dubuffet, Chaissac’s rebellious desire to keep
at a distance from the French capital retained his œuvre from
the public eye for most of his life. This exhibition showcases
an outstanding selection of his experiments – with all manner
of odd and uncommon materials – that established him as one of
the freest, most provocative figures of his time.
Gaston Chaissac employed a multiplicity of unusual techniques.
For instance, scraping a surface to create an image, or painting
with a brush in his mouth. In his abundant output, he used every
imaginable medium from wooden packing crates to metallic debris,
and driftwood. He applied his acute and inventive drawing style
to modes of expression based on free form, and represented the
human figure in totems and collages made of wallpaper scraps.
The show focuses on his use of recuperated objects and furthertotems
assembled from planks of wood painted with human figures.
Gaston Chaissac was born in Burgundy in 1910. Throughout his life
he kept what he termed his peasant identity, refering to himself
as a “Picasso in clogs.” Chaissac liked to emphasize the parallel
between his paintings and the rusticity his language; saying “when
you get down to it, in painting I speak patois (a dialect).”
Chaissac discovered the art world in 1937 through Otto Freundlich
and Jeanne Kosnick-Kloss, painters who lived in the same building
as his brother. For awhile he was associated with the Art Brut
trend promoted by Jean Dubuffet. Both artists shared a keen interest
in children’s drawings and folk art.
However, despite his initial willingness to a be part of this
movement, Gaston Chaissac soon realized that Dubuffet’s theoretical
definitions were far-removed from his own aspirations. As he put
it, “I quite simply dubbed my thingamabobs ‘rustic modern paintings,’
whereas Dubuffet astutely referred to his as Art Brut... his description
caught on, but mine never got off the ground.”
Gaston Chaissac (1910-1964) to Oct 29, Tue-Sun, 10am to 7pm, Jeu
de Paume, 1 pl de la Concorde, 8e, M° Concorde, tel: 01 42 60
69 69, 38F
