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Jean Le Gac

Jean Le Gac (6 May 1936 – 26 December 2025) was a French conceptual artist, painter, pastelist and photographer who employed mixed media, frequently video or photography and text to document his investigations and sketched scenes.

Life and career

Jean Le Gac was born in Alès, France on 6 May 1936. His poetic photographic interventions in which he is most often the main subject are accompanied either by typed text describing the underlying story in the artwork or handwritten notes in the art piece itself. Member of the Narrative art movement since the seventies, Le Gac ofttimes tells a story about an imaginary character that viewers can easily identify with the artist himself. He calls it a “metaphor for painting." Le Gac also uses the artist's book as a central part of his art practice. Le Gac is a Professor and lecturer at Institut des hautes études en arts plastiques.

Le Gac was selected to represent France at the Venice Biennale in 1972 and at Documenta 5 in 1972 in Kassel, Germany. Following Jean Le Gac's first solo exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in 1973 in Oxford, United Kingdom, Jean-Hubert Martin, a leading art historian and curator of international exhibitions organized the first Le Gac exhibition in France at the Centre Pompidou in 1978.

In 1991, France's national state-owned railway company (SNCF) commissioned Le Gac to create work for the stained glass ceiling of the newly renovated train station in the Alsatian town of Colmar in France. Through his glass enclosed paintings, Le Gac drew the adventures of twin sisters who were tied up next to the rails but saved by a painter hero.

In 1992, Le Gac was commissioned by the City of Cannes, France, to realize four multi-media artworks in the old fortress prison of the Fort Royal of Île Sainte-Marguerite, famous for having ‘hosted’ the Masque de Fer (Man in the Iron Mask) incarcerated during the reign of King Louis XIV during the 17th century. Le Gac used aquarelle, pastel, acrylic paint, and video projections to create murals in four different jail cells of the fort. Each painting is associated with a video in which a fixed image of the artist appears and whispers a story of the paintings.

As in many of his other works, the concurrent use of text and image allows Le Gac to draw us into his poetic imagination, transporting the viewers in his inner voyages full of trains, dreams, plants, pastels, and photographs, the traces of real and imaginary wanderings. One typical such early work is “Le Roman d’Aventure” made in 1972, where Le Gac represents himself both as the painter searching for an elusive character he never catches up with and as the narrator behind the camera that documents his desperate search. In those “photo-texts” as Le Gac calls them, he talks about himself in the third person and chases his own elusive dream of becoming a painter.

Le Gac died on 26 December 2025, at the age of 89.

Selected solo exhibitions

  • 1973: “Imitations of Jean Le Gac” at the Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, United Kingdom
  • 1978: “Le Peintre, Exposition Romancée, Jean Le Gac,” at the Musée National d'Art Moderne – Centre Pompidou
  • 1984: “Jean Le Gac : un peintre de rêve" at the Musée d'art Moderne de Paris, France.
  • 1992: “Jean Le Gac et les peintres amateurs de Fribourg”, Fri-Art - Centre d'Art Contemporain, Fribourg, Switzerland
  • 1994: “Jean Le Gac : días con y sin pintura” Museo Provincial de Valencia, Valencia, Spain
  • 2003: Musée du Château Villeneuve, Vence, France
  • 2006: Villa Tamaris, La Seyne-sur-Mer, France
  • 2007: Jean Le Gac "en dormant, en lisant" à l’arsenal, in Soissons, France
  • 2009: “Effraction douce”, Musée des tapisseries, Aix en Provence, France
  • 2010: Jean Le Gac dans la collection àcentmètresdumonde, Hôtel Campredon, Maison René Char, L'Isle-sur-la-sorgue, France and at the Pavillon Carré de Baudouin, Paris, France
  • 2022: Chateau de Chaumont-sur-Loire, France, retrospective: “Jean Le Gac, la peinture à lire” (“Paintings you can read”).

Selected group exhibits

Collections

Public works

  • In 1986, Le Gac was commissioned to paint a mural on a 5-story building wall in Paris, at 52 Rue de Belleville, 20th arrondissement, that represents a kneeled down detective searching for the painter.
  • In 1991, Le Gac was commissioned by SNCF (National Company of French Railways) to create works on the glass ceiling of a train station in Colmar, France.
  • In 1992, Le Gac was commissioned by the City of Cannes, France, to realize four multi-media artworks in the old prison of the Fort of Île Sainte-Marguerite.

Bibliography

  • “Imitation of Jean Le Gac” Authors: Jean Le Gac, Translated by Vivien Gordon, Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, England, English language, Publisher: Museum of Modern Art, Oxford, 1973
  • “Jean Le Gac : le décor, le roman d'aventures, les vues, le peintre, les images bavardes, les anecdotes” Authors: Jean Le Gac, Muzʼeon Yiśrael, Jerusalem, Israel, language English, Publisher: Musée d'Israël, Jérusalem, Israel, 1974
  • “Jean Le Gac par Le Gac Jean” Authors: Ann Hindry, Jean Le Gac, Musée Léon Dierx, French language, published by Cercle d'Art; Musée Léon Dierx : Conseil général de la Réunion; Editions Sainte Opportune, Paris, France, 1992,
  • “La chasse au trésor de Jean Le Gac” (exposition, Musée de Saint Germain en Laye, 24 octobre 2007-5 mai 2008) Authors: Jean Le Gac, Musée d'archéologie nationale France, French, published by Réunion des Musées nationaux, Paris, 2007,
  • “L'atelier de Jean Le Gac” Authors: Jean Le Gac, Evelyne Artaud, French, Publisher: Thalia, Paris, France, 2010,
  • “Jean Le Gac : das Echo und sein Maler” : Ausstellung, Installationen, Filme : 24. Oktober-30. November 1988, Authors: Jean Le Gac (Artist), Günter Metken, Gerhard Fischer, German, Publisher: Daedalus, Wien, Austria, 1988,
  • “La machinerie Le Gac” Authors: Jean Le Gac, Kristell Loquet, Jean-Luc Parant, French, Publisher: Le Poney, Illiers-Combray, France, 2008,
  • “Jean Le Gac : le peintre, exposition romancée” : Paris, Musée national d'art moderne, [11 janvier-27 février 1978], Authors: Jean Le Gac, Günter Metken, Musée national d'art moderne (France), French, Publisher: Centre national d'art et de culture Georges Pompidou, Paris, 1978,
  • “Jean Le Gac : der Maler” Authors: Jean Le Gac, Günter Metken, Kunstverein in Hamburg, Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus München, Neue Galerie, Aachen, Germany, German, Publisher: Edition Lebeer Hossmann, Brüssel, 1977
  • “Jean Le Gac, un peintre de rêve" : ARC Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris, 4 juillet-23 septembre 1984, Authors: Jean Le Gac, Suzanne Pagé, Béatrice Parent, Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris, French, Publisher: Le Musée, Paris, 1984
  • “Jean Le Gac : días con y sin pintura” Authors: Jean Le Gac, Palau dels Scala Valencia, Spain, Spanish, Publisher: Diputación Provincial de Valencia, Valencia, Spain, 1994
  • “Jean Le Gac : de schilder van de groet = le peintre des salutations”, Authors: Jean Le Gac, Daan van Speybroeck, Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen, Print Book, Dutch Publisher: SUN, Nijmegen, 2002,
  • “Jean Le Gac et le photographe”, Authors: Jean Le Gac, Michèle Auer, Venus Khoury-Ghata, French, Publisher: Ides et Calendes, Neuchâtel, 2001,
  • “Et le peintre : tout l'oeuvre roman”, 1968–2003, Author: Jean Le Gac, French, Publisher: Galilée, Paris, France, 2004,
  • “Le Peintre de Tamaris près d'Alès, Recueil de photos et de textes”: 1973–1978, Crisnée, Belgium, French, Published by Yellow Now, 1988,
  • “Introductions aux œuvres d'un artiste dans mon genre”, by Jean Le Gac, Arles, French, published by Actes sud, 1987,
  • “Le peintre intercalaire” by Jean Le Gac, Paris, published by Deyrolle, French, Paris, France, 1990,
  • “Je t'écris, collection, L'art en écrit by Jean Le Gac, French, published by éditions Jannink, Paris, France, 1998,
  • “Itinéraires” by Jean Le Gac, French, Published by: Éditions La Pionnière, Paris, France, 2008
  • “La Salle des herbiers, musée” by Jean Le Gac, French, Published by: Éditions La Pionnière, Paris, France, 2000
  • “Tour of the World” and “The Excursion” by Jean Le Gac, photographic serials published in 1976.
  • “Jean Le Gac, l'effraction douce”, by author: Laurent Olivier, French, published by Éditions La Pionnière / Pérégrines, France, 2009,
  • “Jean Le Gac,” by author: Catherine Francblin, French, published by Art Press Flammarion, Paris, France, 1984,
  • “Jean Le Gac, le peintre blessé,” by Dimosthenis Davvetas and Bernard Marcadé, French, published by Éditions Galilée, Paris, France, 1988,
  • “Narrative Art, Qualcosa di / something by Jean Le Gac” by Paolo Tonini, Italian and English languages, published by L’Arengario Studio Bibliografico, Gussago, Italy, 2021
  • “Habiter la peinture : expositions, fiction avec Jean Le Gac” by Sandrine Morsillo, Publisher: Editions L'Harmattan, French, Published: December 2004,
  • “Le peintre fantôme =: Der Phantom-Maler” by Jean Le Gac, French, German, Publisher: Stadtgalerie Saarbrücken, Published: December 1992,
  • “Où sont les couleurs ?” by Jean Le Gac, French, Publisher: Seuil Jeunesse, Published: December 2001,
  • Les Couleurs De L'Argent” by Helene Delprat, Aki Kuroda, Jean Le Gac, Sol LeWitt, Ouattara, Jean-Pierre Pinc, Publisher: Edition du Musée de La Poste, French, Published: December 1991,

References

Sources