THE RUE AUX LAINES

In his works, Jean-François Lacalmontie (1947, France) shows us large white backgrounds bordered by a black frame in which black drawings are entangled. Here and there, collages are integrated, a coloured bird in origami, a blue sky, a cloud. 

Lacalmontie’s creative process is methodical. In several notebooks, the artist lets his imagination run wild on the pages. Through an automatic process, he lets himself wander and draws all sorts of figures springing from his “inner universe”. This state of fantasy then gives way to the selection of certain “objects” which will then be cut out, enlarged, projected and finally transposed onto the canvas. 

Jean-François Lacalmontie is a painter of vibration, without any sign of pathos or immediacy. His works are ideas that he grasps, that offers us a singular diving experience. Each painting is of a very mastered elegance, which troubles and leaves us on the lookout.