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Jean-Louis Faure (sculptor)

Jean-Louis Faure is a French sculptor, painter and writer born in 1931 in Paris. His work as a sculptor which he began in 1979, consists of 112 sculptures ( which today he prefers to call “ narrative carpentry handiwork").

Biography

Jean-Louis Faure was born in 1931. Elementary and secondary education at the Saint-Seurin-de-Prats school, and in several Parisian Lycées as well as at the Collège de Guyenne.

On May 15,1942 his father François Faure ( Paco in the Résistance) who had thrown his lot in with the Général De Gaulle was arrested by the Germans and sent first to Struthof and then to Dachau. He came back in 1945 and was named ‘Compagnon de la Libération’.

Admitted in 1950 to the Paris ‘École des Beaux Arts’, where he learned etching.

Military service in Algeria (1952-1954). As a ‘spahi’ he was assigned to the Governor’s Horse Guard, complete with the 1822 issue sabre, and his artistic talents were noticed: he became “ peintre de la cavalerie” (official painter to the cavalry) (no doubt the last of the kind). He is discharged in May 1954. The Algerian War starts on the 1st of November.

Self-imposed exile in Bolivia (1955-1956) on the Isla del Sol in the middle of Lake Titicaca. First show of paintings in La Paz. Resident in Argentina until 1959. Arrested and tried on his return to France, he is acquitted by “ justice de classe”.

1960-1972 Jean-Louis Faure agrees with the “ Manifeste des 121” in support of the right to insubordination. He becomes art director for various magazines such as ‘ Marie Claire’ and ‘ Adam’ and for major publishers. He contributes to the creation of the pocket-book collection ‘10/18’, and is blessed with the friendship of Alexandre Vialatte. In 1966 he produces issues of the magazine “Le Crapouillot” ( recently taken over by Jean-Jacques Pauvert) devoted to the Funeral Parlour business, LSD and the Swedes. In 1969 he is hired by the “Éditions Rencontre”. There he works on the making of Max Ophuls' and André Harris’s “ Le Chagrin et La Pitié”( “ The Sorrow and the Pity”) produced by Charles Henri Favrod.

In 1973 Jean-Louis Faure takes up painting again... before giving it up “ to the gratification of all” ( dixit the artist) after the Capitonnages (“ Upholsteries”) series, shown in Paris at galerie Rodolphe Stadler.

In 1979 he tries his hand at sculpture (“ Model used by Lord Ismay”.3) In 1983, the first exhibition of his sculptures takes place rue Berryer. By pure chance, in this very townhouse formerly owned by the Rothschilds, in the very room he is showing in, Paul Doumer President of the Republic was assassinated in 1932, later to be embalmed by Elie Faure, grandfather of Jean-Louis Faure. In 1987, his appearance in a documentary about contemporary sculpture by the German director Heinz-Peter Schwerfel elicits the following evaluation by art-critic Michel Nuridsany: ” Best ignore the presence of Frenchman Jean-Louis Faure, who was probably chosen to compound the notion, very prevalent in Germany, that French Art ceased to exist twenty years ago”.

The sculpture Bêtise de l’Intelligence ( 1994) in the artist’s studio. It clearly shows Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir refusing to shake Arthur Koestler’s hand. Staline is the true subject of the piece.Régis Debray collection.

Works

From the beginning (1979), Jean-Louis Faure often incorporated manufactured objects in his pieces (taps, car-mats, plates and cutlery, etc...), distantly reminiscent of Marcel Duchamp’s “ Ready-Mades “. Later these incorporations would come to include personal belongings ( decorations, photographs, weapons...) as well as art-works, some inherited from his grand-father Elie Faure (African masks, anonymous XIV century statue of the Virgin, portfolio of Goya’s etchings, unfinished oil on board painting by Chaïm Soutine, hellenistic sculpture from the II century BC, etc...). In 2004 Régis Debray- who has come to know the oeuvre over the years- plans the building of a wooden structure in his vast garden in order to exhibit it. For material reasons the project comes to nothing. In 2009 : Exhibitions and ( temporary) consigment of all most all the sculptures in the Dominique Vivant Denon and Nicéphore Niepce Museums in Châlon-sur-Saône. In 2013, Régis Debray’s unflagging support of Jean-Louis Faure in word and act, inspires Antoine Gallimard with the notion of exhibiting the work ” Bêtise de l’Intelligence” for a year in the entrance hall of the NRF ( today Éditions Gallimard). Since 1979 Jean-Louis Faure has made 112 sculptures ( which today he prefers to call “ works of narrative carpentry”), as well as designed the Académie des Sciences sword for Professor Alain-Jacques Valleron 8 (2005). According to Bertrand Raison, « In order to approach Jean-Louis Faure’s “ univers sculpté “( you must) read the titles of his works, but furthermore (...) closely parse the small notes he painstakingly composes for each piece. The sculpture and its caption go hand in hand”.9 For Patrick Marnham “ Much of Faure’s work grows out of his fascination with the darker sides of French history and the farcical undercurrents of power. The titles give the flavour of his preoccupations.”

Project for a Public Monument

“Project for a Monument for the Ville de Paris commemorating General Dumas" The statue of General Dumas as it would have been...illustration Rita Mercedes

In 2006, for a commission by the Ville de Paris, Jean-Louis Faure submitted a project for a sculpture in honour of General Dumas which would have been erected in Géneral-Catroux square on a grassy embankment bordered by Avenue de Villiers, fifty metres from Gustave Doré’s tribute to Alexandre Dumas, the general’s son. The ‘ Direction des Affaires Culturelles de la Ville de Paris’ did not follow up on this proposition.

Conservation

* Musée Nicéphore Niepce, Châlon-sur-Saône ( 2 sculptures on consignment)

• Musée de la Grande Guerre, Meaux (4 sculptures, living bequest)
• Musée de l’Homme, Paris ( 1 sculpture, living bequest)
• Centre National des Arts Plastiques ( 4 acquired sculptures)
• Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain Provence Côte d’Azur ( 1 sculpture)
• Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain Languedoc-Roussillon ( 1 sculpture)
• Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain Alsace (1 sculpture)

Exhibitions

Personal shows

* Jean-Louis Faure - Paintings, Galerie Rodolphe Stadler, Paris, from 04/04/1974 to 04/05/1974.

• Jean-Louis Faure - Sculptures, Galerie Alain Blondel, Paris, from 16/10/1984 to 05/01/1985.
• Jean-Louis Faure - Galerie Arlogos, Nantes, 1985.
• Jean-Louis Faure. Sculptures, Théâtre d’Hérouville - Comédie de Caen ( in collaboration with Gallery Arlogos) from April 20 to May 22, 1988.
• Jean-Louis Faure/ Gérard Gasiorowski. La Guerre,Gallery Arlogos ( in collaboration with Gallery Adrien Maeght, Paris) 1989.
• Jean-Louis Faure, Sculptures Espace Culturel de la Manufacture de Tabacs de Nantes .P.A.R.C January 16 to February 12 1989.
• Jean-Louis Faure, Institut Français, Cologne. 1990
• Jean-Louis Faure, Jean-Michel Sanejouard : two mavericks, Musée d'Art Moderne de Villeneuve d'Ascq. From April 27 to July 28 1991
• Jean-Louis Faure sculptures Musée de l'Elysée, Lausanne, from 21/01 to 28/03, 1993
• Jean-Louis Faure, Galerie I.U.F.M. Confluence(s), Lyon. From October 1 to November 14, 1998, 12
• Jean-Louis Faure, Sculpteur d'Histoire(s), une retrospective, [Sculptor of History(Stories)], Musée Vivant Denon and Musée Nicèphore-Niepce, Châlon-sur-Saône, from June 20 to September 28, 2009. ( https://www.paris-art.com/sculpteur-dhistoires/).
• Jean-Louis Faure: Histoire(s) (History/Stories) Bibliothèque Alexis de Toqueville in association with the Memorial pour la Paix, Caen. From March 16 to April 22, 2018.

Group shows

• Rendez-vous des Artistes : Christian Corre/Jean-Louis Faure/ Jean-Pierre Le Boul'ch/ Alain Tirouflet, Fondation Nationale des Arts Graphiques et Plastiques, Paris (chosen by Michel Troche) January 18 to February 14, 1983.
• Siméon et les Flamants Roses, jeune sculpture européenne ( Allington-Baquié-Bartolani-Blacker-Catania-DiRosa-Faure-Friedmann-Guerresi-Houshiary-Jammes-Monnier-Navarro-Noguera-Nunzio-Proudhom-Plensa-Raynaud-Totem) Albi, Centre Cultural de l'Albigeois, from July 3 to July 31, 1984).
• F.I.A.C. 1985, presented by Gallery Alain Blondel, Paris Ateliers Internationaux du Grand Lucé, Abbaye de Fontevrault, (F.R.A.C. Pays de Loire) 1985.
• Salon de Montrouge, (presented by Gallery Alain Blondel, Paris).1985.
• Six Siècles d'Art Contemporain [Six Centuries of Contemporay Art'], Chartreuse de Villeneuve-lès-Avignon.
• Obersteinbach "Corpo" Presentation of the F.R.A.C. Alsace collection - Art Frankfurt ( presented by Gallery Arlogos, Nantes). Frankfurt-am-Main.
• Passé-Présent. Presentation of the Rhône -Alpes F.R.A.C. collection, Gallery Portes-Avions, Marseille.
• Fusionen : Faure, Fleischer, Lavier, Rousse, Bayer Kultur Forum Leverkusen.
• Jean-Louis Faure, Richard Baquié, Fabrice Hibert, Galerie Arlogos, Nantes.
• [untitled], Centre d'Art du Luxembourg, Luxembourg,

Du Mur de l'Atlantique au Mur de Berlin, (...) Saint-Vaast-la-Hougue, Musée Maritime de l'Ile Tatihou, from May 20 to 15 September, 1994.* / Conseil Régional de Basse-Normandie, Abbaye des Dames (Caen) / Musée des Beaux Arts de Saint-Lô, from November 10, 1994 to January 3,1995.

• Un autre Monde/// Dans Notre Monde. Evocation contemporaine du réalisme fantastique , [Another World/// within our World. Fantastic realism, a contemporary testimonial.] (...) F.R.A.C. Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur. Marseille, from March 23 to June 27, 2019.
• Emmanuel Guibert en bonne compagnie, Musée d'Angoulême, from May 19 to June 27, 2021.

Writings

• La plus puissante des impuissances [The most powerful impotence], in Revue d'Esthétique 33, 1998.
• J'ai vu les mêmes abrutis dénoncer les Juifs, puis tondre les femmes. [I have seen the same morons inform on Jews and later shave off women's hair]. Foreword by Régis Debray; avant-propos by Charles-Henri Favrod, Gollion, ( Switzerland) Infolio editions, 2012. (ISBN 9782884748131)

Further reading

Books

• Heinz-Peter Schwerfel; Photos de Caroline Abitbol, Kunst in Paris'', Köln, Kiepenheuer & Witsch Verlag, 1990 ISBN 3462020706.
• Michel Enrici – Joëlle Pijaudier – Heinz-Peter Schwerfel, Jean-Louis Faure, Paris, La Différence / Musée d’Art Moderne de Villeneuve-d’Ascq, 1991,' ISBN 9782729106850.
• Clémence de Biéville. Préface de Pierre Leyris, Trente-six sculptures de Jean-Louis Faure. Inventaire descriptif par un expert en arts africains, Nantes, joca seria, 1993 ISBN 2908929139
• Clémence de Bieville, Dessins de Pierre Le Tan, Louis Max. L’histoire d’une famille, Paris, Les Éditions de l’Épure, 1995. (Hors Commerce).
• Jean-Louis Faure – Pierre Pachet, Bêtise de l’intelligence, Nantes, joca seria, 1995 ISBN 2908929317
• Dominique Noguez Les Derniers Jours du monde Robert Laffont, 1991, (1re éd. ), 2001, 2e éd. , 596 p. ISBN 2221095022
• Dominique Noguez, L'arc-en-ciel des humours, Jarry, Dada, Vian, Paris, Hatier, collection « Brès Littérature », 1996. / Le Livre de Poche, 2000. 229 pages ISBN 2253943010.
• Dominique Noguez Les Martagons, roman, Gallimard, coll. « L'infini », 1995 (prix Roger-Nimier 1995) ; Folio, 1999.
• Dominique Noguez, L'Embaumeur, roman, Fayard, 2004 ; Le livre de poche, 2006.
• Régis Debray (préface), divers auteurs, Jean-Louis Faure, Sculptures, Paris, Éditions De Fallois, 2009. 200 p. ISBN 9782877066884.
• Régis Debray (préface), divers auteurs, Catalogue irraisonné : Sculptures De Jean-Louis Faure, Paris, Éditions De Fallois, 2014. 256 p. ISBN 9782877068741
• Régis Debray, François Taillandier (préfaces), divers auteurs, Ultime Catalogue Irraisonné - Sculptures, . Paris, Éditions De Fallois, 2020. 264 p. ISBN 9791032102282.
• Emmanuel Guibert, Jacques Samson, Emmanuel Guibert en bonne compagnie. Impressions Nouvelles, Collection Traverses ISBN 9782874498305.

Articles in english

• Patrick Marnham, Joker in the Attic, The Independent Magazine, July 23, 1994.
• Patrick Marnham, A Sculptor Settles his Accounts, The Oldie, pp.30-31, September 2014.
• Patrick Marnham, Jean-Louis Faure, French satirical artist whose work treated patriotic myths to an acid bath of contempt, The Telegraph, March 13, 2022.

Filmography

*La Troisième Dimension Réalisateur : Heinz-Peter Schwerfel (1ère partie : Franck Dorneiff, Markus Lüpertz, Markus Raetz, Jean-Louis Faure, Richard Deacon - 2ème partie : Gloria Friedman, Tony Cragg, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Anne et Patrick Poirier). Coproduction la SEPT, Arion, HPS films, WDR, ORD, ENAP. 1987.

• Vies: Alain Cavalier Avec Jean-Louis Faure, Michel Labelle, Alain Pouliquen, Françoise Widhoff. 87 minutes, 2000.
• Être vivant et le savoir : Alain Cavalier, 80 minutes, 2019. (présence de la sculpture La Jeune Morte).

Notes and references

- According to Ulrike Biehounek, author of the article dedicated to Jean-Louis Faure in the ' Allgemeines Künstlerlexikon Online': "from the beginning the artist uses consecutive numbering for his sculptures. The works only become accessible to the spectator thanks to detailed accompanying texts published on internet and which are an integral part of the artwork. In these texts, he reflects on historical figures and events (real) by way of freely interpreted anecdotes, revealing a very idiosyncratic view of history. Jean-Louis Faure does not ( primarily) pursue an aesthetic goal, he aims at illustrating ideas."

Exterior Links

* The artist's website ( http://emamo.free.fr/) ( Enfantin Musée d'Art Moderne Oblique- fully updated to number 105).

• Sources in the fine arts field:https://www.degruyter.com/database/AKL/entry/_40176391/html