Jean Edelmann

Jean Edelmann (born May 2, 1916 in Paris ; † October 2008 ibid) was a French painter and graphic artist in the tradition of Braque and Picasso.

biography

Edelmann comes from an Alsatian family. Due to his family environment, he was subject to the simultaneous influence of the arts and sciences from an early age. His father, a doctor, shared his passion for drawing and his mother, a passionate theater-goer, was also an excellent pianist. At the same time blessed with a talent for drawing and mathematics, Edelmann took part in both disciplines in the Concours général , where he won a prize in drawing.

In 1935 he began his training at the École polytechnique , which he left again in 1937. After the beginning of the Second World War, he was taken prisoner in 1940 and stayed in a camp in Austria for five years. After his return from captivity, Edelmann devoted himself to painting, graphics and book illustration. In 1946 he married Catherine Cambier, who was also a book illustrator. From this marriage there were three children.

Jean Edelmann's first exhibition took place in 1952 at the Galerie Cardo in Paris. He then presented his work in the Cinq-Mars Gallery, the Messine Gallery and the Galerie d'Art International in Paris. In parallel to painting, Edelmann also used various other media to express himself. From 1956 to 1965 he took part in the realization of an ensemble of stained glass windows for the Saint-Julien church in Caen . The tapestry presented to him an important medium. From 1960 to 1963 he participated in various exhibitions of small-format tapestries alongside artists such as Arp, Braque, Picasso and Lagrange.

At the end of the 1970s, Edelmann finally made himself independent by founding the Musée-Galerie de la SEITA in Paris, which he himself managed for a long time.

plant

His pictures show a certain resemblance to works of Cubism , but Edelmann had his own signature that set him apart from other artists of the 20th century. In addition to still lifes, he repeatedly dealt with topics of sport or places of public gathering. In particular, the works that were created in the 1950s such as “La foule” (“The crowd”) from 1955 or “La fête foraine” (“The fun fair”) from 1956 still shine in a wide variety of colors. But in the sense of a balance between drawing and color concept, Edelmann moved more and more away from his earlier works towards a more monochrome use of color. The themes remained the same, but the colors became more subtle and the application of paint thinner. The color should no longer dominate the drawing, but still make it clearly recognizable. This is why Edelmann also valued the watercolor , which by its very nature has a color intensity and application of paint that still allow the drawing to shine through. The still lifes , which primarily consistently show kitchen utensils or his scenes on the beach such as “Dourmeuse au bord de la mer” (“Sleepers by the Sea”) from 1988, appeared again and again in pale, gray, green or Violet tones to which Edelmann remained loyal until the 1990s.

Web links

• CV (French)
• Works in gdk gallery of artists

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original dated November 26, 2006 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
2. ↑ Archived copy ( memento of the original from March 24, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
3. ^ Dagen, Philippe: Jean Edelmann , Edition Galerie d'Art International, Nantes 1986.