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ABOUT |
JEAN
PODEVIN |
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)
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Photo Paul Wallait
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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
(Art Critic)
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He
deifies uncertainty, infinity
without dimension, motion caught in flight.Thus he imprisons the truth
in a liberating plasticity...
…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)
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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)
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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)
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JFP |
JFP
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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.)
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...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
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JFP
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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)
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A
FEW PRESS CLIPS |
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photo1998 |
ARTS
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
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.
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LA
CROIX
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.
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LE
FIGARO
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.
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LE
MONDE
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
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.
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FRANCE
SOIR
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.
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L'AURORE
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.
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LE
PROVENCAL
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 |
PLAISIR
DE FRANCE
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 |
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ARTS
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 |
JOURNAL
DES MEDECINS
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. |
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ARTS
After having valued, felt,
sized up the ambient world with a non hidden pleasure, PODEVIN restitutes
transposed images, decanted without excess, granting to the poetic feeling
a primordial place without falling falsely into glitter
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.
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NORD
MATIN
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.
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ELLE
" 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.
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LA
VOIX DU NORD
There is an exploding and
brutal aspect that is in the painting of Jean PODEVIN. Behind the violence
of the features and colors there is a sensitive artist, who knows how to
translate with perfection the emotion that creates here a
landscape, or there afemale form.
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LE
FIGARO
For PODEVIN, Marrakech is the
blinding light, the kindling of his painting. Full summer of color, all
fervors caught in a clever choreography. |
Jean
Podevin
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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
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Partial
list of Exhibitions: |
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1947-1960 :
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.
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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)
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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)
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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) |
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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 »
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