Jean-Michel Sanejouand (18 July 1934 – 18 March 2021) was a French artist. His work ranged from site-specific art to monumental sculptures, from readymade-like objects, to paintings of oneiric landscapes in which (usually) one of his sculptures stands. During his lifetime, three retrospectives of his work were organized, in Lyon (1986), his birthtown, in Paris (1995), where he lived for thirty years, and in Nantes (2012), in the region where he lived for the rest of his life.
Biography
Sanejouand: "Enigme", 2010, acrylic on stones, from the Sculptures series
His work can be encapsulated in a series of distinct periods, which the artist titled.
From 1962 to 1967, he worked on a series of readymade-like assemblies of manufactured objects that he called "Charge-Objets" (English: "Charge-Objects").
From 1967 to 1974, he realized or proposed
site specific modifications (tree plantings, video projection, windows painted in black, throwing ice blocks on a volcano, etc)
that he called "Organisations d'espace" (English: "Space Organizations"),
each project, realized or not, being presented with an architectural drawing.
In 1968, he started to paint on canvas. First, with indian ink, in black and white, scenes involving carricatural characters -a series called "Calligraphies d'humeur" (1968-1978).
In 1978, he started to perform "Organisations d'espace" for imaginary landscapes, which he painted with a colorfull, naive style -a series called "Espaces-Peintures" (1978-1986).
These paintings became more and more abstract, until he switched to black and white -a series called "Peintures Noir et Blanc" (1986-1992).
In 1989, he started to make projects of monumental structures, each project being done by assembling together a few stones painted in black.
Only two of them were realized: "Le Silence" (1996) and "Le Magicien" (2005).
In 1996, he started to paint his sculptures -a series called "Sculptures-Peintures" (1996-2001).
In 2002, he started to perform "Organisations d'espace" for imaginary landscapes including one of his sculptures, which he painted with a colorfull, highly dynamic style -a series called "Espaces-Critiques" (2002-2008).
He died on 18 March 2021 at his home in Maine-et-Loire, France.
Gallery
Pèse-pierre, 1963
Toile de bâche à rayures et règle, 1964
Organisation de l'espace de la cour de l'École Polytechnique à Paris - 06/05/1967
07/06/1973 17h10, indian ink on canvas
22/12/1978, acrylic on canvas
10/07/1982, acrylic on canvas
Accord de deux - Ci-devant-après, 1989, acrylic on canvas
2012 "Ends of the earth: Land Art to 1974", MOCA (Los Angeles, USA).
2015 "Cycle des histoires sans fin", MAMCO (Geneva, Switzerland).
2020 "Platform: Paris/Brussels", David Zwirner's online viewing room.
Monumental sculptures
1996 "Le Silence" (The Silence), a bronze sculpture whose largest version is two meters high. Until 2019, It was installed in a private park of sculptures near Biarritz (France).
2005 Le Magicien (The Magician), a five-meters high bronze, installed in the gardens of Palais Saint-Georges, close to the railway station of Rennes (France).
↑Les Organisations d'espaces de Sanejouand, by Pierre Restany, Blaise Gautier and Claude-Louis Renard, Centre National d'Art Contemporain eds, Paris, 1973.
↑Jean-Michel Sanejouand: Espaces-Peintures 1978-1986, by Michel Enrici and
Joelle Pijaudier, Musée d'Art Moderne de
Villeneuve-d'Ascq/La Différence eds, Lille, 1991.
↑Jean-Michel Sanejouand: Les Charges-Objets 1963-1967, by Bernard Lamarche-Vadel, Fondation Fine Art of The Century/La Différence eds, Paris, 1990.
↑Jean-Michel Sanejouand, Rétrospective 1963-1995,
by François Barré, Robert Fleck, Germain Viatte and Fabrice Hergott, Centre Georges Pompidou eds, Paris, 1995.
