JACQUES CHAUVIN

French (1911-1986)

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Jacques Chauvin was an artist in Paris during the most exciting period of art exploration and transformation – the early and middle twentieth century.   A graduate of the École des Beaux Arts in Paris, he was attracted to the intellectual movement in art and literature, and the revolution in form and spatial relationships.  He was fascinated with the works of Picasso, Braque, Matisse, Miro, Calder, and Cocteau and associated with them in the various art and literary salons.

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His work shows their influence – the reduction of images to geometric components as in cubism (Picasso and Braque) and the use of color to define form (Matisse).  Well-known and respected by his colleagues, his work was little known outside of the working artists of the period.  He never exhibited his work publicly but was content with satisfying his own curiosity on form, color, motion, and spatial relationships.

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A collection of his work recently re-surfaced and is attracting a lot of attention in the art world.  Had he exhibited during his lifetime, his name would be mentioned along with Picasso and Braque (and priced accordingly), as a significant artist of the period.