Jean Martin, painter of reality. 1911-1996.
Somogy| N° d'inventaire | 20150 |
| Format | 22 x 28 |
| Détails | 320 p., 327 illustrations, paperback with flaps. |
| Publication | Paris, 2016 |
| Etat | Nine |
| ISBN | 9782757210529 |
A contemporary of the artists of the Témoignage group, Jean Martin was born in Lyon in 1911. Self-taught, he was supported very early on by the gallery owner Marcel Michaud, with whom he shared the ambition of a social art nourished by the conquests of the Popular Front. On the fringes of the debates surrounding the quarrel over realism, Jean Martin developed a "painting of reality marked by the ascendancy of the painters of the 16th century German, in the wake of Grünewald, but also by the contemporary Flemish expressionism of the Laethem-Saint-Martin group. Like Stanislas Fumet, contemporary critics distinguished a style without equal in French painting of the 1930s, a sharp line chiseling a color melted into an enamel paste. In 1938, his meeting with the critic Henri Héraut, founder of the Forces Nouvelles group, proved to be of the utmost importance, the artist seeing himself associated from then on with various national events advocating a virtuous realism. A painter of the Spanish Civil War, then of the defeat, he participated in 1940, alongside the publisher Marc Barbezat, in the birth of the famous literary magazine L'Arbalète. After the war, Jean Martin left Lyon for Paris where he participated in the revival of the performing arts by creating sets and costumes for theatrical productions that brought him into contact with the major figures of French entertainment. In the early 1950s, he founded the Art et tradition chrétienne gallery, taking an active part in the revival of sacred art during the years of the Council. The first monograph devoted to the artist, this work is part of the renewal of studies relating to the history of painting in the 20th century through the prism of the permanence of the figure.
A contemporary of the artists of the Témoignage group, Jean Martin was born in Lyon in 1911. Self-taught, he was supported very early on by the gallery owner Marcel Michaud, with whom he shared the ambition of a social art nourished by the conquests of the Popular Front. On the fringes of the debates surrounding the quarrel over realism, Jean Martin developed a "painting of reality marked by the ascendancy of the painters of the 16th century German, in the wake of Grünewald, but also by the contemporary Flemish expressionism of the Laethem-Saint-Martin group. Like Stanislas Fumet, contemporary critics distinguished a style without equal in French painting of the 1930s, a sharp line chiseling a color melted into an enamel paste. In 1938, his meeting with the critic Henri Héraut, founder of the Forces Nouvelles group, proved to be of the utmost importance, the artist seeing himself associated from then on with various national events advocating a virtuous realism. A painter of the Spanish Civil War, then of the defeat, he participated in 1940, alongside the publisher Marc Barbezat, in the birth of the famous literary magazine L'Arbalète. After the war, Jean Martin left Lyon for Paris where he participated in the revival of the performing arts by creating sets and costumes for theatrical productions that brought him into contact with the major figures of French entertainment. In the early 1950s, he founded the Art et tradition chrétienne gallery, taking an active part in the revival of sacred art during the years of the Council. The first monograph devoted to the artist, this work is part of the renewal of studies relating to the history of painting in the 20th century through the prism of the permanence of the figure.