Alain Jacquet
(1939–)
(–2008)
Alain Jacquet
1939–2008
Alain Jacquet (1939–2008) was a French painter and printmaker representative of the Nouvelle Figuration movement, linked to the American Pop Art movement. Born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, he initially studied architecture at École des Beaux-Arts as a self-taught painter; his works were inspired by classical paintings and used advertisements and magazines.
Jacquet tirelessly worked around how representation informs the viewer’s gaze, and this can be seen in his first abstract canvases or his mechanically generated paintings (via silkscreen printing or computer). Jacquet experimented with various techniques throughout his career, yielding an impressive oeuvre of myriad forms and media.
His debut in 1961 functioned as a dialogue with American Pop artists during the Mec’Art period. Through his Braille, 1968–1981, and Visions de la Terre, 1972–1988, series—which anticipated appropriationist art and simulationism—he engaged with the multiple currents of his era. He was the only French artist in the When Attitudes Become Form exhibition curated by Harald Szeemann in 1969. Jacquet’s work was shown at Documenta 4 in Kassel in 1968, at the French Pavilion of the Venice Biennale in 1976, and at the Sao Paulo Biennales in 1967 and 1989.
Jacquet’s works are held in the collections of over 30 international museums in countries such as Australia, Switzerland, Denmark, Netherlands, the USA, France, and Canada.