ARTIST STATEMENT

« Your contribution to landscape photography and your unique and luminous printing technique are to be commended »  
   Britt Salvesen, Lead Curator of Photography and Prints LACMA Los Angeles museum of Arts - June 2012`

   Jacques Blanc, about his work in general and photography in particular :

“Life is gold ! 

Devoted in a process of Observation and personnal Transcription of our world. Observation is achieved through a frame. Transcription is achieved throught the solar light of gold, a paroxism that allows me to understand and blend extremes, from Egyptian mystic works to arte povera minimalism. 

In ancient Greek language, photography means “writing with the light”. 
Chrysography, means "writing with gold. 

That means that the form takes a major part in my work : the vase gives the vacuum a form.

My photographic work on gold includes large photos -more than 6 feet- as well as miniatures photos -les than 3 inches.

With these miniatures, I develop a theme : celestial and divine light. A light that slips under a door, cuts out a cloud over the ocean or illuminates a stained glass window in a sacred place. Gold enhances this light and makes the most of it.
Please note that neither RGB screens nor CMYK prints can reproduce the color of gold.

An artist is a critic of the society through the lens of his camera. I am a critic through the print of my pictures. My own artistic approach has always been based on a healthy form of curiosity in other cultures, in other worlds, in other words. My work revolves around the theme of the diversity of the nature and the individual.

BIOGRAPHY

"Jacques Blanc was born in Nice. This city would perpetually feed his artist’s statement and he was especially influenced by Yves Klein and his colour research into blue and gold. Martial Raysse, also of the prolific and talented ‘École de Nice’ movement, was a major influence on Jacques’ research.

 Jacques Blanc soon chose life in a cosmopolitan way. After three years spent soaking up multiculturalism in Canada, he graduated from Sherbrooke University. Ever on the hunt for new cultures, he moved to Norway where he devoted himself artistically to writing, in a musical environment. He immersed himself in that Nordic culture carved out of simple forms and mature design.

 By the 1990s, he was back in Paris, concentrating on copywriting and art direction of large advertising agencies. Gradually, Jacques Blanc came back to creativity for the sake of creativity. In London -where he spent two years- he would work with gold on different surfaces – skin, car aluminium and soon canvas. His talent for combining creativity with his passion for gold leaf and pigment working earned him national and international media recognition.

 Gold leaf and pigment on photographies combines skill working the material with finding a balance through creative forms from a world all of his own : creating art that is surprisingly inventive and quirky, but still meticulous and normalised. It communicates the artist’s own approach, which is both modern in meaning and timeless in the traditional handling of the material."

Gérard Hermet, Teodora Gallery