Onirismes Lucas Ratton
On the occasion of the Parcours des mondes, the Lucas Ratton gallery will present an exhibition entitled “Onirismes”, featuring works by Jean Messagier and masterpieces of tribal art.
“L'artiste ne choisit pas un objet primitif, il le reçoit".
This quotation by Jean Messagier in response to a questionnaire from Marcel Evrard on the relationship between the artist and the so-called “primitive” art object, as a preamble to the exhibition “Arts primitifs dans les ateliers d'artistes” at the Musée de l'Homme in 1967, ideally sums up his thinking.
Indeed, from his earliest works in the early '40s, Jean Messagier never ceased to confront his painting with tribal art, a fascination reflected in the titles of his canvases, such as “Afrique Météorologique”, “Les porteurs d'Afrique” and “Aimez-vous la Nouvelle-Guinée"?
In 1953, his meeting with André Breton at a group show at the Étoile Scellée gallery with Jean Degottex, Marcelle Loubchansky and René Duvillier was decisive.
An admirer of Picasso's work and his closeness to African art, Jean Messagier invented a fantasy bestiary of pike, horse, pheasant and kingfisher.
This exhibition features a rare selection of little-known works that foreshadow his future work in connection with tribal artworks whose forms and structures directly respond to each other.
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Galerie Lucas Ratton
11, rue Bonaparte
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