I Found My Art Father
I went to Montreal for a little rest and relaxation and while flipping through channels of French TV a little something caught my eye. It was an old man tearing subway posters, and while I have no idea what he was saying about it I kind got the gist that he goes around his town peeling bits off of walls and then rearranging them on canvas. The end result looks remarkably similar to what I photograph, the main difference being that he creates and I find, but our philosophies are very much the same. He says in an interview here:
“It is really a utopian view. You always cheat a little. But the lacéré anonyme exists to a certain degree. After the first exhibitions I thought people would go outside and take posters from the streets, just as I did. That was not so. It is a bitter victory for me, after all, I like to save myself the creative agony. The whole world makes work for me — I only have to collect it.”
I’ve often thought the same thing. When I started taking the photos of the subway billboards I thought, “This is just so easy I’m sure everyone must be doing it”, but as I looked into it a bit more I realized I was wrong. I belong to a group on flickr devoted to subway photography and not a single other person is shooting these, but I admit I was also a little relieved. His comment about cheating makes sense to me as well since these have always been my sneaky way of making abstract paintings without ever having to learn how to paint or face my fear of the dreaded blank canvas.
Anyway, go check him out, Jacques Villegle is a French institution and completely worth taking the time to navigate his nutty website. He even has a contact button so now I have to go brush up on my French and figure out what to say to the man who more or less invented what I do, I’m not sure, “Hello Daddy!” will translate with the right intent.
April 29, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Oh YES! This is the guy whose work I saw in a major retrospective at Centre Pompidou last December. I was so taken by it and the work had a definite influence on my more recent collages. I’d never heard of Villegle before seeing the exhibit, and feel the same was that you do. Oh YES!!
April 29, 2009 at 11:57 pm
One time when I was helping renovate an old victorian home my job was to remove about five or six layers of wallpaper. The boss wanted me to get it done as fast as I could, which meant a paper tiger and spraying a remover. It got really interesting though, and I stopped using the paper tiger. I stayed longer than I had, even if it meant being off the clock to see some really interesting things revealed in colors and pattern.
I really like the one with the overall red theme. I mean…blow it up to six feet. I want it!
May 1, 2009 at 10:32 am
what a great find, Toni! it’s always exciting to stumble onto an artist whose work and process resonates with you and even more exciting when their art making philosophy lines up with your own.