2 Watercolor Ink Wash Signed Gérard Village

2 drawings signed Michel VILAGE set / pendant and both dated 1977, in watercolor and wash / ink, one featuring an anatomical study of a moving face (the Leonard Da Vinci Mman of Vitruve reference is obvious) and for the another an anatomical study of a falling body (fallen angel thema).

In both cases, bodies are treated like "skinned", in Renaissance spirit, revealing and directly enhancing the human body muscles.
Work of Michel VILAGE and that of his brother are inseparable, so much their artistic career is mixed, sometimes not to avoid to discern their differences. These 2 drawings could even seem closer to his brother's creations, if they were not signed by his hand and his first name (see last 2 photos)

The 2 frames and their master key seem to be the original ones. -It is obvious at least for one of them letting appear in its lower left part 2 preparatory studies or sketches of a skinned bust in profile.

Sizes:
18*15.5cm (frame 33.7*26.3cm) for first one
and 27.5*23cm (frame 38.3*32.2cm) for the second

Michel Vilage, oeuvres, estampes, gravures, eaux-fortes, pointes sèches, Galerie Champetier (mchampetier.com)
Biography of Michel Vilage

Michel Vilage will study art with his brother Gérard at the Villa Thiole in Nice (1961- 1969). There he studied drawing, watercolor, painting and engraving. Engraving will become his real vocation. Over time, the artist will know how to master the various techniques linked to this art: etching, aquatint, drypoint, soft varnish, mezzotint, engraved wood, lost wood techniques. From 1971 to 1975, he participated in the opening of an intaglio engraving department at Atelier Clot Bramsen et Georges in Paris and worked not only with leading artists of the Cobra Group (Jorn, Alechinsky, Corneille), but also with Wifredo Lam, Niki de St Phalle, Tinguely and others. He opened a first engraving workshop in 1975 in Paris (until 1989), a workshop where Bengt Lindstrom, Fassianos, Kijno and Corneille would work. He opened a new engraving workshop in Fécamps (Seine Maritime) in 1989 and collaborated on numerous large-format prints by Arman and Antonio Segui. This adventure will last until 2005. In his own work, Michel Vilage has favorite themes: the body, movement, space according to the oriental tradition. His art is intimately linked to his course of study of Japanese gesture arts (He will obtain his state certificate for the teaching of Aikido in 1976 and will be a teacher of Kinomichi, an oriental discipline derived from Aikido at the Noro Institute from 1972 to 1986). The artist goes to positions where he can transmit. In 1993, he was thus professor of drawing at the prison of health and of engraving at the Municipal School of Fontainebleau; the following year, he gave courses in anatomical and morphological drawing at the Ecole d'Ethiopathie in Cachan and worked as an engraver at the Académie de France in Rome. Since 1998, he has been a professor in charge of engraving at the Ateliers Beaux Arts of the City of Paris where he teaches intaglio. In 2010, he established his own label: Creation of Kaïtendo (Big Wheel), based on walking, highlighting the verticality of the body in the dynamics of movement in a circle. Michel Vilage, in 2011, opened a new search for intaglio engraving with Yan Peï Ming in the artist's studio in Evry for the production of large format engravings.

Biographie of Gérad Vilage
From 1961 to 1969, Gérard Vilage studied art at the Villa Thiole in Nice too, like his brother; he studied drawing, painting and engraving. The artist goes to live in Greece on the Parros island; he mainly practices sculpture there. He remained in Greece for fourteen years, before returning to settle in Paris;He joined his brother Michel, sharing his studio until 1989, a studio in which they worked for artists such as Bengt Lindstrom, Fassianos, Kijno or Corneille. The Vilage brothers will open together a new engraving workshop in Normandy, in Fécamp. Many renowned artists continue to collaborate with them (Arman, Antonio Segui, etc.), especially on large format engravings.In 1998, Gérard became drawing professor at the Ateliers des Beaux Arts in the city of Paris, a position he held until 2014. "Drawing cannot be learned ! I only teach a relationship to space," he used to tell his students, feeling he learned more from them than he could give them.Gérard Vilage's watercolor-enhanced drawings, imbued with reminiscences, in a universe of dreams and solitude, reinvent mythologies of which we could be if not the heroes, at least the children.
Gérard Vilage now lives in Fécamp.