Jean René Bazaine
Jean René Bazaine (21 December 1904 – 4 March 2001) was a French
Studies
Bazaine was born in Paris. He studied
These studies would culminate in an influential text Notes sur la peinture d'aujourd'hui (1948), aimed at going beyond the boundaries—quite dogmatic at the time—of abstract and figurative. It supplied the theoretical base for Bazaine's creative criticism that found its practical use when he was invited, in 1952, by the Carnegie Foundation to sit as the European member of the jury for the Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting in company with the American painter William Baziotes.
Bazaine did not pursue his initiation into sculpture, though he became one of the great friends of
Painting
Bazaine was to develop into a significant Modern School of Paris painter. A fire in his workshop in 1945 destroyed almost his entire production, leaving only scant reference to his important series of watercolors of the 1930s that prefigured the experimental feel of his mature work.[5]
Bazaine's work was first shown in company with
Demobilized from the army in 1941, Bazaine in the face of the prejudice over
However, Bazaine's richest contacts with contemporary master-painters were to be within the specialized field of stained glass.[5]
Stained glass and mosaic
In 1937, at the workshop of the glazier Jean Hébert-Stevens, who worked out Bazaine's first
A magnificent catalyst in the debate on modern art and religion at the time[
The Eglise de Sacré-Cœur d'Audincourt, built in part with the savings of the industrial workers who composed the parish—and who chose the avowed communist Fernand Léger as their creative (and extremely versatile) main interpreter—stands as one of the great monuments of twentieth-century sacred art.[9] The experience left Bazaine with a fond memory of Léger:
- It was my first frontwall mosaic (some 75m²). Afterwards I made seven more. Léger, meanwhile, was creating inside over the complete ambulatory a superb monumental suite in glass brick. He was very outspoken, with words that carried the day -So, my old friend- he said to me in front of my mosaic - do you always work in melodies ? This he accompanied with a slap on the shoulder fit to tumble an ox. Of Picasso, who he did not like he said to me: -You who are a writer why don't you tell them he is only small fry. (...de la petite mésure).[8]
More mosaics were to follow: UNESCO Paris 1960, Skissernes Museum Lund 1965, Faculté des Sciences de l'Université de Metz 1977, Hôtel de Ville Martigues 1981, Salle Clemenceau, Palais du Luxembourg and Métro Cluny-La Sorbonne Paris 1985-1987, Mjällby Konstgard Halmstad 1988–1989 as well as some great series of stained glass windows.[8]
Since his early travels to Brittany, Bazaine had fallen in love with the sea and his series of windows in Finistère are among his best inspired: Penguilly Castle, two windows 1973; Locronan, six windows for the Ty ar Zonj chapel 1977; Penmarc'h, six windows for the Madeleine Chapel 1979–1981.[8]
Among Bazaine's best known stained glass work is a set of seven windows inspired by the
There were other windows as well as monumental works; tapestries for the Palais de Justice Lille 1969, for the Ecole Navale at Lanvéoc-Poulmic (Finistère) 1973. Chartres stained glass, Bazaine, together with Alfred Manessier founded the Association pour la Défense des Vitraux de France (the "Association for the Defense of France's Stained Glass"). In 1984–1988, Bazaine was master of the works for executing the new windows of the cathedral of Saint-Dié-des-Vosges, for which he assembled an impressive company of painters and master-glaziers. In 1980, he had been created Commandeur des Arts et Lettres.[8]
1993–1995 saw a traveling exhibition of Bazaine's monumental works. In 1996, a great mosaic (15 m × 12 m) was executed for the new church at
In 1997, when Jean Bazaine, couleurs et mots - entretiens avec Paul Ricœur et Henri Maldiney appeared, summarizing his career, his monumental mosaic L'Envol de la Liberté on the Mur de la Liberté (Liberty Wall) at Saint-Dié-des-Vosges was being completed.[8]
Poetry
Throughout his career Bazaine kept contact with many poets, some twenty of whom he saluted in Jean Bazaine, couleurs et mots (1997) including Paul Éluard, Abdellatif Laabi, Pierre Lecomte du Noüy, Eugène Guillevic.
Three of them stand out as lifelong friends and soulmates, André Frénaud (whose work has been translated by Keith Bosley), Jean Tardieu, and his own son Jean-Baptiste de Seynes who took his name from his mother Catherine de Seynes-Bazaine.
Bazaine illustrated Raymond Queneau's monograph André Frénaud for Le Divan Editeur, 1960 (150 ex. with an original lithograph, thirty examples hors series with an added lithograph).
Bazaine died at the age of 96 in
References
- ^ Visitation of England and Wales, Volume 17 1911, ed. Frederick Arthur Crisp, reprinted 1997 by Heritage Books Inc.
- ^ Benezit Dictionary of Artists
- ^ Oxford Index
- ^ Grove Art Online
- ^ a b c d e Bazaine: Centre National de Arts Plastiques Paris, Skira 1990
- ^ Eglise Notre-Dame De Toute Grâce
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2009-03-04. Retrieved 2007-01-18.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ a b c d e f g h Jean Bazaine: Couleurs et Mots: le cherche midi éditeur, 1997, entretiens avec Paul Ricœur et Henri Maldiney
- ^ Edward D. Mills, F.R.I.B.A. The Modern Church. Great Britain, The Architectural Press London, 1956
- A Painter's Philosophy -An interview between Jean Bazaine and George Bernier in: The Selective Eye: An anthology of the best from L'ŒIL, the European art magazine. Edited by Georges and Rosamond Bernier. New York Lausanne, Random House 1955
- Nello Ponente Peinture Moderne, tendances contemporaines. Paris, Editions d'Art Albert Skira 1960
- André Frénaud La Noce Noire (lithography (1946) by Jean Bazaine) in: Pierre Seghers le livre d'or de la poésie française, seconde partie (tome un): de 1940 à 1960 Verviers, Belgique Marabout Université, 1969
- Alexander Liberman The Artist in his Studio London, Thames and Hudson 1969
External links
- Saint Séverin windows
- Chapelle St Dominique-St Matthieu Paris
- Adamson: The Art criticism of Jean Bazaine 1934-1944
- Obituary
- Unesco obituary (french)
- Centre Pompidou, 110 works by Bazaine (enter his name in recherche rapide)
- Sacré Cœur d'Audincourt (French)
- Audincourt via Helsinki (super!)[permanent dead link]
- L'Envol de la Liberté (French)
- Couturier/Bazaine in context (images, little German text)
- Time Magazine (1958) Modern Glass for Medieval Churches
- Sacré Coeur Audincourt Baptistery windows high-resolution pictures