The young painter was chosen by the organizers of the international tournament. At the age of 29, and only two years after graduating from Fine Arts, he is already meeting the recognition of the world of contemporary art.
Jean Claracq did not really believe it. “I was surprised that they selected me. The organizers of Roland Garros have retained the proposal of the young Angloy painter for the poster of the next tournament. A paradoxical picture, both refined and detailed. Figurative, realistic approach, far removed from epic suggestions where sports communication rambles its codes. “My project is a painting, more than a poster”, summarizes the young man of 29 years.
Everything goes very quickly, for those who set their work over time, even slowness. He graduated in December 2018 from the Beaux-arts de Paris. In the process, enters the selection of the Artagon competition, international exhibition of art school students. The winners exhibit at the General Stores. The Sultana gallery wants its work and signs it. Emissaries from the Vuitton Foundation notice his painting. The Institution will offer it its walls in winter 2020.
Photo credit :
Sportsman and artist
“It’s a bit mysterious. I feel like I’m lucky. At the Beaux-arts, you learn patience. We are taught that it takes a long time to be recognized as an artist. “
With Roland Garros, one of his paintings passes into the field of popular culture, in the sense of the extraordinary visibility of the event. You have to be a nominated candidate to apply, “it’s a bit of a co-option”. “During the Vuitton exhibition, ” Beaux arts magazine ” devoted an article to me. The editor then contacted me to encourage me to participate in the poster competition. “
Photo credit: Nicolas Kuttler
Jean Claracq accepts the omen and the new experience. The French Tennis Federation invites him, along with two other artists like him, to attend the 2020 tournament. Jean has never had a particular affinity with “Roland”. The tournament never announced the summers in his life. He discovers the Porte d’Auteuil emptied of its audience by the Covid-19. Stops along the side courses, sees young hopefuls in the shadow of the stars, wheelchair tennis… “I found something similar between being a young artist and a young athlete. This is in the intense, very long, solitary and repeated effort of training or the workshop, for a reduced moment when something is shown. “
Calm
“As with painting. I have an addiction to calm that I experience in painting. This meditative dimension. “
Jean Claracq’s poster translates a suspended time. The architectural lines and geometries lead the gaze to a shirtless man, seated on the beaten earth, leaning against a concrete step. He is alone. The training is over and the stars chase the last pink reflections of dusk. We hear the night coming. “It shows the painful side of the effort. This is not the time for success, for joy. It is that of work, all there is before. Surpassing oneself and pain. ” Everything is calm. “As with painting. I have an addiction to calm that I experience in painting. This meditative dimension. “
We are tempted to see Edward Hopper in the paintings of Jean Claracq. He has a great love for medieval art and photography. “I try to refer to the history of art. It is a learned culture, but there is this idea in medieval art to address everyone. Everyone should be able to view art. The image should not be closed, hermetic, it should not be self-centered. It makes a rich image, open to interpretation. References are not essential. “
Documentary
Many urban landscapes (not only) frame the work of Jean Claracq. It opens skylights on the intimacy of the interiors. Those whose lives we imagine to have watched them furtively, at night, in passing. “When I see a building, I can’t help but tell myself that there are people in it who are doing things too well,” he smiles.
Photo credit :
His subjects are everyone. They often handle mobile phones, absorbed.
“It quickly fascinated me to see people with their smartphones. The people are there and we have no idea where they are. “
Perhaps at the end of the world, in knowledge, in frivolity … Julien Claracq neither judges nor denounces. He observes. Everywhere screens. Its cities are like ours, so are its lives. The scenes in his paintings are gentle and familiar to us. His work is certainly documentary, through the acuity of the gaze focused on the ordinary.
From the Bayonne art school to the Vuitton Foundation
Jean Claracq was born in 1991, in Bayonne. He grew up in Anglet, where he lived until he was 19. He studied at the intercommunal art school, notably with Dominique Berthomé. “This is a very important step for me, determining”, he praises. His career continued in Paris, where a year of preparatory class at the Atelier de Sèvres led him to the National School of Fine Arts in Paris. He very quickly met the recognition of the artistic community, when he left school in 2018. In particular through his selection in the collective exhibition Artagon. This is where the Vuitton Foundation sleuths notice it. A “solo” exhibition will follow which will give new visibility to the artist. His work for the French Tennis Federation is one of the rebounds of these thunderous beginnings. Jean Claracq is worn by the Sultana gallery in Paris.
–
