French poet, draughtsman, painter and printmaker, born Jacques Moreau in 1928 in Paris, died in 2016 in Paris.
Life
Jacques Moreau, known as Le Maréchal, came first to poetry. Close to Surrealism, he remained outside the group; André Breton praised his painting in 1960. He appears in the review Le Surréalisme, même in 1957 and took part in the EROS exhibition (1959), then the International Surrealist Exhibition in Milan (1961). Gaston Bachelard, André Pieyre de Mandiargues and Édouard Glissant also wrote about his work.
As a printmaker he belongs to the lineage of the “visionary engravers” who claim descent from Rodolphe Bresdin, and he trained Georges Rubel. A catalogue raisonné of his prints was published by Éditions Broutta in 1985.
The work
He is best known for his “inextricable drawings” and “transparent paintings”, described as “fantastic and prophetic visions”. He draws in Indian ink and also works in egg tempera, watercolour and gouache.
Exhibitions and collections
- 2023: exhibition at the gallery, as part of “Chromatisme”, with the publication of the monograph L’Imperceptible abîme (Éditions Venus d’Ailleurs) and the screening, at the Christine cinema, of the documentary devoted to him by Véronique Faure and Delphine Genest
- 2024: three works in “At the Sources of Convulsive Beauty” at the gallery, including Les 7 portes de la folie, Indian ink on paper, 30 x 25 cm, and Les 3 Papes, 1971-1975, egg tempera on panel, 58 x 45 cm; article by Louis Janover, “Changer l’angle de la réalité”, in Le Monde diplomatique (November 2024)
- Another work shown by the gallery: Là où plane le héron gris, 1991-1992, watercolour and gouache, 25.3 x 32.6 cm
- 2026: “Graver l’imaginaire”, Galerie La Ville A des Arts, Paris (23 March to 5 April), with Yves Doaré, Didier Mazuru, Georges Rubel and others