Jean-Michel Sanejouand


Jean-Michel Sanejouand 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 one of his sculptures stands. During his lifetime, three retrospectives of his work were organized, in Lyon, his birthtown, in Paris, where he lived for thirty years, and in Nantes, in the region where he lived for the rest of his life.

Biography

Born in Lyon, France, in 1934, he received a degree in law from the Institut d'études politiques de Lyon in 1955.
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".
From 1967 to 1974, he realized or proposed
site specific modifications
that he called "Organisations d'espace",
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".
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".
These paintings became more and more abstract, until he switched to black and white -a series called "Peintures Noir et Blanc".
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" and "Le Magicien".
In 1996, he started to paint his sculptures -a series called "Sculptures-Peintures".
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".
He died on 18 March 2021 at his home in Maine-et-Loire, France.

Solo exhibitions

  • 1967 "Première organisation d'espace", Ecole Polytechnique.
  • 1968 "Deux organisations d'espace", Galerie Yvon Lambert.
  • 1973 "Les Organisations d'espace de Sanejouand", Centre National d'Art Contemporain.
  • 1979 "Espaces-Peintures", The Antwerp Gallery, FIAC.
  • 1982 "Espaces-Peintures", Lens Fine Art Gallery.
  • 1986 "Rétrospective: des Charges-Objets aux Espaces-Peintures", Palais des Beaux-Arts.
  • 1991 "Espaces-Peintures 1978-1986", MAC.
  • 1991 "Les Charges-Objets 1963-1967", Galerie Froment-Putman.
  • 1995 "Rétrospective 1963-1995", MNAM Centre Georges Pompidou.
  • 1996 "Peintures", Galerie Barbier, FIAC.
  • 2002 "Libre et Change", Galerie Chez Valentin.
  • 2005 "Sanejouand", Le Plateau.
  • 2011 "Espaces et Cie", Galerie MAM, Drawing now, Carrousel du Louvre.
  • 2012 "Retrospectivement", Frac des Pays de la Loire, HAB gallery, as part of "Jean Michel Sanejouand's year in Pays de la Loire".
  • 2015 "Un peu d'espace", Galerie Art : Concept.
  • 2018 "Beyond color", Galerie Art : Concept.
  • 2018 "Operation contact", Galerie Kreo.

Main group exhibitions

Monumental sculptures

Collections