“Formal reading of the Art leads to intellectual comfort.” 1
From September, 3rd to October, 2nd 2004, the gallery Chez Valentin presents a solo-show by French artist Jean-Michel Sanejouand. “Question peinture” is the intentionally grating title of this show which features “Les Espaces critiques”, a series started in 2002, produced by an artist who always refused to be locked in genders or manners.
Camille Morineau writes about JMS it is normal that 45 years of artistic activity could hardly be summarized, but in Jean-Michel Sanejouand’s case this difficulty borders on impossibility: approximately every six years, the artist apparently changes his manner and/or his practice radically. But these changes are only apparent, because both his radicalism and the consistency of his artistic approach more and more impose themselves as the dominant characteristics of his work
. 2
Jean-Michel Sanejouand is the organizer of a perilous context which continuously reaffirms that there is no established truth in art and that no form is valid in itself without a system of thought to support it. He foils, with a certain sense of humor, our codes of understanding and thinking systems. He even sometimes claims using painting just as sculpture and affirms to do in painting what he will never realize in sculpture. He is not careful with people and/or conventions, that is why some people would prefer to forget him or let him be forgotten.
What is important to my eyes, is to let “it” express itself, not to censure myself neither by interest (to get well known), nor by intelligence.
3
This new exhibited series of works is made of big canvases which simplicity is just an appearance. Colored landscapes composed with diverted elements of his own work are the purpose of this new series. His citations are not strictly exact, even if it is possible to identify his Organisations d’espaces, Calligraphies d’humeur, Charges-objets, the Peinturesand Sculpturesseries. Jean-Michel Sanejouand is characterized by his will to always call himself into question. He refuses the comfort of his own work, and claims his freedom as a constitutive proposal for his work and for himself. The stakes of art are never forgotten. By confronting bright colors one to another, he reorganizes with these “impossible” elements the landscape of the painting space.
1 in Espaces-Critiques (2002-2003) Interview with Jean-Michel Sanejouand, Emmanuelle Chérel, 2003.
2 in Jean-Michel Sanejouand, Camille Morineau, Etrangement proche, Seltsam Vertraut, Stiftunf Saarländischer Kulturbesitz Saarland Museum Editions , 2004, p.104.
3 in Espaces-Critiques (2002-2003) Op.cit.