Jean-Claude GaugyLarge Expressionist Oil Painting Hand Carved Wood Panel Jean Claude Gaugy, 1997

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Jean-Claude Gaugy (French, b. 1944)
Very large oil on hand carved wood board
"Au Dessus et au Dessous, La Meme".
… Read more Jean-Claude Gaugy (French, b. 1944)
Very large oil on hand carved wood board
"Au Dessus et au Dessous, La Meme".
Hand signed titled and date 1997 verso.
Measures 51" x 51", frame Measures 60-1/2" x 60-1/2"
This magnificent landscape work is done in vibrant jewel tone colors reminiscent of a stained glass window.

Jean-Claude Gaugy is a contemporary French artist known for his painted relief sculptures of Cubist abstractions of figures, landscapes, and still lifes. He studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. Gaugy works within the traditions of early European Modernist painters such as Paul Klee and Georges Braque, referring to his work as "Linear Expressionism." He works in a Contemporary Surrealist style. His work can be found in the collections of the Rockefeller foundation, the Hermitage Museum and the Smithsonian Institute, among others. A classically trained sculptor, He works in carving bas-relief plaques into heavy slabs of wood that could hang on walls like sculpted paintings. Renowned for his distinctive "carved paintings," a unique synthesis of painting and sculpture.Gaugy applies paint with his hands, preferring direct and intimate contact with his work. Deeply emotional, semi-abstract, yet anchored in tradition, Gaugy’s passionate and gestural expressionist works cannot be mistaken for those of any other artist. Born In the Jura mountain region of France, Jean-Claude Gaugy entered the art world early. At age five he began his apprenticeship, drawing daily and working in the family foundry. At fourteen he left for Paris, doing portraits first in cafés and later in an exclusive club. There, Salvador Dali discovered him and sponsored his first Paris gallery exhibition at Galerie de Seine and helped gain him entrance to École des Beaux Arts as a sculpture student. A place in a group show at Paris’ Museum of Modern Art earned him a purchase by the Russian Government of all three of Gaugy’s works in the show, a trip by consular jet to Moscow and St. Petersburg and his first museum installations. Returning to Paris, Gaugy immersed himself in the art world, sharing a studio with Bernard Buffet, meeting Pablo Picasso, continuing to paint and study. He studied at Académie Julien and Académie du Feu in Paris, the School of Design in Rome. School of Woodcarving in Oberammergau, Germany, and School of Sculpture in Moscow. He went to England for an apprenticeship with Henry Moore. In 1996, Gaugy immigrated to the United States where he created major murals for libraries, churches and synagogues, as well as having work purchased by major corporations and well known personalities. He returned to France and had shows in his native region as well as the Musée du Luxembourg in Paris. Jean Claude Gaugy is known for Surreal figure painting, wood carving, sculpture. He has also completed some bronze sculpture in the cubism style as well as some print edition in lithograph technique. He completed many murals, some as long as 50 feet. A variety of museums included his work in their permanent collections and his reputation as the father of Linear Expressionism began to grow. In 1994, the Government of Luxembourg proudly sponsored an exhibit of 150 of Gaugy’s works, including two forty-foot murals. Artists in other media have honored him by writing dance pieces and musical compositions based on his paintings, and in 1998 he had a major mural installed at Columbia Medical Center in New York. In the early 90s, in addition to his regular work, Gaugy began creating his “magnum opus” – a carved work of spiritual themes almost 11,000 square feet in surface area. It has been called “a Sistine Chapel in a contemporary idiom”. Completed in 2002, it was installed as a meditative space in Santa Fe, New Mexico and held open until 2007 to great acclaim. Noted choreographer Christopher Fleming wrote a full-length ballet about this monumental work and performed it in the space to a full house. Based in the Southwest and shown in galleries worldwide. See less