PODEVIN, a painter and sculptor is above all a player of the “Grand Jeu” (Big Game), the one that drives man to really understand beyond the knowledge, the experience, and the logic, all the relationships pertaining to matter and energy, and this with the totality of his being.
André PARINAUD
(Art Critic)
Photo Paul Wallait
photo P. Wallait 1964
The child who is already crazy about "matieres*" at six years of age in the manner in which he selects the sand pebbles to rearrange them better, immediately looks for the balance on the canvas when he begins to paint
If he happens to try hastily to fix the profile of a table neighbor who caught his eye, he doesn't hesitate to use a piece of the paper tablecloth on which he eats lunch. Elsewhere, amazed by the beauty of a landscape at noontime, he borrows from the restaurant owner, a felt pencil, to indicate, without losing one second, the essential lines of the view. He will tip a paper napkin in his black coffee to get the very beautiful earth tones that he integrates in the first idea for a canvas painting. The rest would come later in his studio…
...As for me, I felt a sensation of fullness, more or less the one that I often felt before a VERMEER of DELFT while discovering the imponderable light that detached itself from such a picture.
To reach this point, PODEVIN explains how in any case, he must fight to get a perfect understanding between space and volume. But, not more than anyone else, can he analyses with precision this mysterious power that we call " Light " and that pervades every instant of our visual existence…
René BAROTTE
…The notion of genius being a constant in our vocabulary, I limit myself to conclude without any compromise that Jean Podevin is one of the most gifted painters of our time, to which he will have given his immense talent without waiting for the laurels of which he would not find the use.
Claude BENADY
(Poet Laureate)
Photo JFP 1982
portrait par JF Podevin
...Fortunately art of PODEVIN is a lot subtler than mere sensations. Balancing the carnal heaviness, or rather sublimating it, the mind springs vigorously, brews matter,lightens it, gives it direction.
Roger lKOR
(Goncourt Laureate)
Jean Podevin's painting is streamline but warm, it is a discreet anthem to what is most luminous to manking and nature.I ignore if he believes in " something ", but I know that PODEVIN can see very far.
Roger BOUILLOT
(Art Critic)
JFP
JFP
What I call " the Ultimate Breach " always exists in the canvases of Jean PODEVIN. Perspective of a landscape in balance on the narrow "abstraction - figuration rampart". Point of no-return that I assimilate to a certain feeling of aggressiveness characterized on canvas or the drawing by the bursting of matter in a Stationnary Place.
Clément LEPIDIS
(Academie francaise Laureate.)
...It
is this cosmic death, against which Jean PODEVIN endeavors to fight, with
the soul of a child, the innocence of an adolescent, mercenary
violence, while pushing before him, like armored vehicles against the
enemy, regiments, legions of proofs of Life...
Gérard MOURGUE
JFP
In fact, everything that dazzles our gaze provokes in Jean PODEVIN an exaltation of sensitivity, an acuteness of the mind, seduced, captivated by the magic of the sea, of the sands, of the sky, under vast outpouring of light, and his art, altogether powerful and refined, knows how to communicate these enchantments, these fascinations, this fullfilment of colors and life.
Emmanuel ROBLES
(Goncourt Laureate)
Marked by cubism, Jean PODEVIN, groups in vivid tones the ardent shapes of fishing boats, of houses: whose stains overflow one on top of the other, with a light hearted exuberance. However, in space, the overall orders itself in well disciplined troops, vibrant with optimism.
R.C.
LA
VOIX DU NORD
High in color, these canvases, probably many times revised, often carry the mark of a matter full of energy. The subject matter, PODEVIN has ordained it, rhythmic, in a rigorous composition where the fervid of the “Golden Ratio” will relish the discovery of logarithmic curves. But he is able in this type of studio work to retain the initial emotion of his sketch from life.
P.H.
LA CROIX
Man of the North, of Valenciennes, established in Paris, PODEVIN works in a very personal, dynamic-swirling style that grants a major place to gesture and to light. Vigorous colorist, he manages to solve delicate problems with the help, not only of impastos, but also of exactitude in his choice of colors.
R.H.
Jean PODEVIN peint des paysages et des scènes de
tauromachie avec beaucoup de dynamisme. Ses couleurs vives apportent de la
vie à son oeuvre.
J.W.
A painter is revealed to us as one of the most curious, the cleverest and the most endearing that we have met for a long time.
A work whose brilliant topic doesn't crush the desire of conciseness and originality proper to the artist, or his taste for a certain extension of reality, beyond the precision of the gesture, and the very displacement of static shapes.
M.E.
LES
NOUVELLES LITTERAIRES
Jean PODEVIN decomposes and recompose the plans, suggest by means of colorful spots, plays with a subtle range of deep blues in his Mediterranean marines, delight himself with light, says with blood and gold the tragic and imposing feast of the bullfights, the man and the beast bound in the same movement. Here is a painter featured by the gallery Fernand Depas, whose work one must follow up attentively.
Wether he paints in Burgundy or Spain or Sicily, wether he transposes the dialogue between the sky and the sea, or recovers the beauty of the couples spread on a beach, it is this same "Different Light" according to the hour or the climate, that allows him to magnify all that his palette, with its rich tones, delivers to our eyes.
Jean PODEVIN compose et transpose la lumière dont il sait s'imprégner mieux que personne. Ses toiles sont joyeuses, resplendissantes de bonheur même lorsqu'elles ne sont pas mouvementées. Plus symboliste que figuratif il donne à son oeuvre une marque personnelle, une touche dont l'éclat demeure longtemps dans la mémoire du spectateur.
Jean PODEVIN composes and transposes the light which he knows how to imbue himself with better than anyone. His canvases are cheerfull, resplendent with happiness when they are not animated. More a symbolist painter than a representational one, he gives his work a personal mark, a flash whose burst and afterimage stays a long time in the spectator's memory.
.
A GRAND PAINTER OF SYNTHESYS. In the young school of which very fortunately a lot of artists remained faithful to the sensation felt in front of nature, Jean PODEVIN occupies an important place.
A.de.B
PODEVIN
sut mêler à ses impressions son propre rêve intérieur. Ainsi a-t-il
composé en pleine richesse de matière ses paysages de Sicile et
d'Espagne, conçus dans une fête de jaunes, de rouges, parfois intenses...
R. B
Jean PODEVIN reveals himself as a great colorist and especially one in love with beautiful textures. The artisan technical side of the painting fascinates me. This faculty that he has of not to cool his composition is striking in his paintings.
P.H
Il est un constructeur dont les rythmes s'organisent sans
aucun souci de ces vains mots
qui, depuis longtemps, empoisonnent l'Art de notre Epoque :
"
Abstrait" et "Figuratif”. Personnage curieux, à la vérité,
dans ses contrastes mineurs.
R. B.
Lines of force on his canvases clear themselves from the symphonies of light enhancing the flexible joints and the major cadences, all his propositions, drawn of a most finely tuned prism of iridescent colors, are windows on the beauty of the spectacles of the world.
C.G.
Une grande unité relie chaque oeuvre de Jean PODEVIN, elle
se trouve dans ce jaillissement de la touche dont la trace rejoint la
courbe ou l'élan de la pâte...
Le
réel se reconstruit immanquablement sous le regard et s'offre multiplié,
par l'expression de la composition.
M.P.
" He paints sounds " - While brushing the silhouettes of the Moroccan “water bearers”, I first discern the tolling of their bells: and the market is only a pretext to the juxtaposition of colored, as well as musical impressions.
M.L.
For PODEVIN, Marrakech is the blinding light, the kindling of his painting. Full summer of color, all fervors caught in a clever choreography.
Born in Valenciennes in 1925(France) :Jean-Emile Podevin married to Marcelle-Frohly (1925-1994,) their children: Philippe married to Michele Darmont, their daughter Laura - Jean-Francois / Barbara Jones, their two sons: William and Mike - Jean-Paul / Laura Roeper, their two sons Louis and Charles.
Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur
Poster for the “Centenaire de la révolution de 1848”
(national
poster for the centennial of the 1848 revolution.)
Laureate for the contest: « Monument
to the resistance ».
Laureate
for the « Salon des artistes Français »
Laureate
for the « Salon des moins de trente ans a Paris. »
Exhibition :
« Galerie de La Boetie » (Paris)
Salon
des Artistes Français (Paris)
Salon
de l’Art Libre (Paris)
Salon
d’hiver (Paris)
Salon
de Mai (Paris)
Monumental Sculpture for the « salon International des
Arts
Plastiques » (Paris.)
Festival
des Arts a Cannes
Exhibition at the Palais de New-York a Paris.
1961-1970
Exhibition at the “ Musee d’Art Moderne » (Paris)
Exhibition at the « galerie de l Œil » (Neuilly/Seine)
Exhibition at the « galerie Durand-Ruel »(Paris).
Exhibition at the « galerie Fernand Depas » (Paris)
Exhibition at the « galerie Raphael Mischkind »(Lille)
Exhibition
at the « galerie Universitaire de Dunkerque ».
Laureate
« Salon de Boulogne-Billancourt »
Exhibition at the: « 23 Peintres » (Lille)
Exhibition at the « Halle au Drap » (Douai)
19
71-1980
Monumental statues for the great hall of the
« Française
de Mécanique » (Pas de Calais)
Exhibition at the « galerie Rossler” a Palm Springs
Permanent
exhibitions at the « galerie de Chisseaux »(Beaulieu /mer)
Permanent
exhibitions at the « galerie le Sagittaire » (St Jean cap
Ferrat)
1981-1990
Première
Biennale du Touquet
Exhibition at the Galerie A..C.A.P (Le Touquet)
Exhibition at the “ salon de l’ Art contemporain » (Montreal)
Exhibition at the gallery « Agence Internationale » (Beaulieu/mer)
Exhibition at the « galerie « The B.A. de France » (Palm Springs)
Permanent exhibits at the “Galerie Barrere” Geneve
Permanent exhibits at the galerie “Atlante “ (Paris)
Permanent exhibits at the galleries “Salambo” (Paris, Geneva)
Monumental
Frescoe for the « Française
de Mécanique » (Pas de Calais)
Exhibition at the hotel Plaza Athenee (Paris)
Exhibition at the « galerie du Cygne » (Geneve)
Permanent exhibitions at the « galerie de Chisseaux » (Paris)
1991-2002 :
Exhibition at the " galerie Gerard Mourgue” (Paris)
Exhibition at the “galerie Patrick Michel” (Paris)
Exhibition at the gallery « Carpe Diem » (Paris)
Museum
Redondo (Santander / Spain)
"Musee
de la Mine "(Anzin)
Assemblée
Nationale
Musée
d’Art Moderne
Centre
Historique de Lewarde.
Mairie
de La ville de Paris.
C.E.S.
Palais d’Iéna- Paris.
Exhibition
at the galerie de « l’Escale » Paris
Exhibition at the « maison de la Culture de Levallois »