JACQUES VILLEGLÉ (JACQUES MAHÉ DE LA VILLEGLÉ)

With the certificate by the artist, 30 April 2009, Paris.

Provenance:
- Galleria Agnellini Arte Moderna, Brescia.
- Purchased from the above by the present owner, since then private collection Switzerland.

"My art is a whole repertoire of cracks, scratches, abrasions, scribbles, daubings, furrows, abrasions, inscriptions and pasting over." Jacques Villeglé

Already during his time as a student, Jacques Villeglé began to collect objects left behind from the war. He assembled pieces of metal, steel, poster and wall remnants, as well as debris from the Atlantic Wall in Saint-Malo to make sculptures. He created his first series of works, the "Objets trouvés", together with his student friend Raymond Hains. They are in the tradition of Marcel Duchamp's "Readymades" and are to be understood as a record of traces of contemporary civilisation. In 1949, the friends founded the "Poster Designers" and proclaimed the "guerrilla movement of signs". They first called their art "affiches lacérées" (torn posters) and later "décollage". Often their works have an explicitly political dimension. At that time, the titles of the works came from the word fragments that could be read on the torn off elements. They ended their collaboration in the mid-1950s.

After the May 1968 uprisings, Villeglé developed a "socio-political alphabet". This is a language system consisting of highly stylised, symbolic letters with a left-wing political context. Alongside this, over the years he continued to develop his "décollages". His solo exhibitions both in Europe and North America were growing in number. He always remained true to his aesthetic principles of creating art that is as humorous as possible and that arises from everyday life and chance, while aiming to avoid technique and craft in the traditional sense.

Our two present artworks (lot 3436 and 3438) are titled after the Parisian streets from which the posters were taken. "Rue d'Hautpoul" from 1974 hung in the extreme north-eastern quarter "La Villette", "Rue Serpente" from 1988 was taken from the "Quartier Latin" - the lively artists' district. In the thickness of the paper and the different layers of colour, the artist seeks to uncover the beauty of time. Mosaic-like structures emerge, inviting the viewer to embark on a journey of deciphering time.