From the Luxembourg Gardens to the studio of Hélène Jacqz
I remember my first meeting with Hélène Jacqz at the Orangery, in the gardens of the Senate in Paris. We were in the company of Marc Albert-Levin, to discover an important step of “Caravane” a nomadic artistic event, in which Hélène participated. Today, a few years later, the energy that fascinated me is still just as intense. “Seasons of Culture” could not miss this rendez-vous.
Interview:
MV : How does one goes from dancing to painting?
H. V. : A year and half after the beginning of an intensive training in a dance school, my body, faithful companion up to that point, failed me. It was violent and painful at first but it became instructive. During my convalescence, I naturally started to draw and create objects with my hands. A few months later, I followed drawing courses in evening classes of the city of Paris. It gave me the desire of continuing.
The painting was some sort of a family affair. My father started drawing when he was 35 years old in a sanatorium, where he stayed for two years to be cured of a heavy form of tuberculosis. He owed his life to the discovery of penicillin, after the removal of a half lung and a post-operative embolism. I was born afterwards. Then, a physical education teacher, he never stopped drawing and painting (from nature).
This is why during my recovery, I naturally started to draw and make objects with my hands. A few months later, I took drawing lessons from models at evening classes in the city of Paris. The pleasure experienced, the discovery of myself, made me want to continue. At the end of that year, I was awarded the Beaux-Arts de Paris and Decorative Arts prize. I chose to enter the Fine Arts Academy in 1986 to become a painter, more than 30 years ago …
The physical engagement in my painting has gradually become omnipresent, like a return to the sources of the physical sensations that forged my learning from childhood to early adulthood. At the moment, I cannot conceive of the stain, the color, apart from the gesture and the life it infuses into the painting.
M. V. : Who are the painters that you admire and that you could refer to?
H. J. : There are many, very different ones, who have accompanied me and who have gradually contributed to my development, because I entered the school of Fine Arts with little cultural background. I learned on the spot, in museums, with a sketchbook in hand. I was obsessed with the desire to find where strength and emotion came from in a work; and why some touched me more and were more universal in scope than others. I first liked Matisse for the color, the simplicity. Manet for the light and its blacks. Lautrec for his design and his humanity. The portraits of Fayoum for their simplicity. Corot for the light. Sassetta (Siena 1400-1450) for fervor and faith, sincerity and candor, the plastic solutions invented for the effects of perspective. Van Gogh, unclassifiable, so intense. Michelangelo, what power he has ! I spent my first five years of apprenticeship in the history of European painting, (that teaches you modesty …) At that time I also had the chance to closely rub shoulders with the collection of Jean Pollack, (founder of theAriel Gallery) who introduced me to the Cobra movement. Without any immediate impact on my production, I was pleased to meet the paintings of Jorn, Appel, Alechinsky (and so many others) who opened me up to the search for the unconscious in 20th century art.
It was in the United States, where I stayed for almost five years (two years with the support of two scholarships) that the transition was made. First shock as I passed the Moma for the third time in front of a painting by Jackson Pollock. So much life!
Same thing for Basquiat, discovered « physically » in 1990 in a New York gallery. I was overwhelmed by his « à propos », his conviction, his freedom and his incredible sense of color. A bomb in the history of painting.
There is also Cy Tombly, I love his last period of painting, such jubilation. Sam Francis for his freshness, his colorism and his taste for experimentation. Paul Klee for his poetry.
Most people confuse in art, content and form. I created my path and grew up looking for what made me sensitive and connected me with such or such work. I found my way by groping, little by little, and proceeding by elimination. It is a constant questioning anyway, because we change.
H. V. : Music seems to be present in your work, what is its origin?
H. V. : I am not looking for a definite form but rather for a feeling. Is this why my painting is easily associated with music? In any case, when I listen to musicians’ comments on musical works, I think to myself that it is a pity that few people know so well about painting and art. We should ask the musicians to talk about painting!
M. V. : Have you been influenced by your extended stay in the United States ?
H. J. : Yes of course. It led to a total questioning at the end of my first year in New York; a leap into the void, an opening to myself, a new beginning where I let go of tradition to explore everything that was more about intuition than learning. Five unforgettable years.
M. V. : How do you explain this development which completely changed your painting about two years ago, when we published one of your works on the front cover of our site?
H. J. : Since 2008, my work has radically evolved (almost without a clearly conscious choice on my part) towards some sort of fulgurance, in a state close to trance or dance. I searched for tools adapted to my needs until I found some allowing me to evolve more and more freely in this type of work, where gesture and form are totally intertwined.
The rollers, which I started using in 2014/2015, were great tools because they allowed me, thanks to the load of paint in the roll, to extend a single gesture from one end of the painting to the other and literally dance. They also allowed the fusion of design and color.
The rollers nevertheless induced a form of parallelism of the line as well as the use of a lot of color. I have always been wary of a too perfect tool which leads to a form of dependence in a process. (It is the tragedy of a painter whom I admire like Simon Hantai who with the crumpled canvas had found such a magical process that it was difficult to go further).
I wanted to return to simpler tools, Chinese brushes, lighter materials close to watercolor was for me a way to change register, to free myself from canvases totally filled up with colors. It liberated me from the use of heavy tools. I wanted to return also to simpler gestures, like removed, as annotations.
The work with rollers was opera. The new melody brought me closer to ritornelles, nursery rhymes or more hypnotic repetitive music, like that of Steve Reich or Philip Glass for example.
The form has changed somewhat. But the background not that much.
M. V. : Paper is important in your artistic journey. Why ?
H. J. : Paper requires little processing (unlike canvas). It is less inhibiting. Since I work without repentance which is very risky, the paper gives me more inner freedom to experiment and go on an adventure. When I am confident, that my purpose is clarified, I switch to the canvas, because I also love the canvas, which, in large format, represents greater challenges.
M. V. : In which artistic movement do you think you belong to currently?
H. J.: I do not think I belong to any movement. But some texts are for me like manifests. One is a comment by the Buddhist sage Nichiren on one of the central texts of Buddhism, the Lotus Sutra. “Even if you are not the venerable Mahakashyapa, you should all perform a dance. Even if you are not the bodhisattva Shariputra, you should leap up and dance. When the bodhisattva Jôgyo [Superior Practice] emerged from the earth, did he not emerge dancing? » [“The Writings of Nichiren Daishonin” vol. 1, p. 1119] (Ecrits p. 1126)
The other quote is taken from a text of Paul Valéry “Soul of the Dance”. He places in Socrates’ mouth this astonishing declaration: « … while this exaltation and this vibration of life, while this supremacy of attention and this rapture in the most agile that one can obtain from oneself, have the virtues and powers of the flame; and that the shame, the troubles, the silliness and the monotonous food of existence consume therein, making shine in our eyes what is divine in a mortal. »
For me painting is a total art, which engages one’s whole life, much beyond the subject. Painting must go beyond themes, ideas.
Painting takes one away, makes one dream and get closer to a different Self. It is proof of the greatest of all freedoms, that of the heart. A work of art should remain an open question, never a closed answer. It’s a battle deep down inside. Freedom, once found, can be tinged with humour, play, theatrality, sadness and many other human feelings that the artist, while at work, might not be aware of. But when the work is over, these feelings are transmitted to the viewer by the mere play of forms and colors.
I like the « mineral » side of the painting itself. Its chemistry, its reaction to water, tools, the artisanal side – and I play with it.
I believe I am part of a family of painters who seek a form of transcendence far from realistic objectivity. Who follow their intuition, who look for some sort of jubilation. I never wanted to be locked into a particular style like abstract expressionism that I don’t really recognize myself in. My painting is mostly concrete, my hands and feet are full of paint when I work.
To come back to your question of which artists I respect most, I could name Sam Françis, Cy Twombly, Simon Hantai for men, Helene Frankenthaller, Judith Reight, Ngamaru Bidu, (an aboriginal woman painter who started painting at age 80), Katharina Grosse and many others, known or unknown. In any case, they are artists who inspire me. We are fortunate in our time to be able to choose our path without having to stick to dictates. Why put a label?
M. V. : What would be your dream as an artist?
H. J. : My dream, I am already in the process of realizing it. It’s a great chance to have the freedom to choose and do something that you are so passionate about. Now I would like to be able to work on projects that would take me further. To be confronted with very large formats to surpass myself. Prove that painting is far from dead, that it vibrates and makes people vibrate. I would also like to collaborate with dancers, poets. I don’t know in what form, because apart from the film where I am seen painting (it requested an effort, it is not in my nature), I don’t really have the spirit of a performer. I prefer to remain hidden when I paint and show my paintings afterwads !!! However, following a dance company that inspires me, taking notes (graphics), while watching could be the start of a new job. I’m thinking about it. And also to find more efficient professional and commercial collaborations. The work that comes out of the studio is only one step that must be pushed further.
M.V. : Book or exhibition projects?
In addition to carrying out exhibition projects with one or two artists I admire, I would like to work more as a team. Gain experience through a residency, for example, but also collaborate with artisans from the Lys region by offering carpet models.
Regarding publishing, « Cadences » is the second publication by Saisons de Cultures about my work. It features a selection from 2017 to 2019. The previous catalog, « Dance with Colors, » covers the period from 2015 to 2017. A third catalog is planned, « A Cappella, » which features works from 2014 to 2015.
I am also pleased to be featured in the beautiful portrait book, « Au fil du temps, » soon to be published by Saisons de Culture.