Gilles Sacksick Born In 1946; Still Life With Pears, From 1979

Gilles Sacksick, 'Nature morte aux poires' oil on canvas ,on wood ,1979, size 60cm by 38cm reproduced in photo in the catalog of the exhibition of the Yomiuri Art Gallery in Paris Gilles Sacksick Born in Paris in 1942 Paul-Louis Weiller Portrait Grand Prize (Institut de France) 1979 Resident at Casa Vélasquez (Madrid) from 1979 to 1981 Since his first personal exhibition, in 1968, forty years of painting, punctuated by encounters, trials and research of different kinds; a journey underpinned by a reflection centered first on his profession and then extended to other fields. As we know, the life of an artist cannot be summed up in a series of dates, even if some of them can be considered more significant. In a few lines, this notice tries to give a portrait that is as accurate as possible. Born in Paris in 1942, Gilles Sacksick began to draw from an early age, then frequented the Louvre assiduously, with no other emulation than that of his own gaze on masters as different as Rubens and Vermeer, Rembrandt and Delacroix, whom he loves then without distinction of genre, school or century, with equal veneration. His first painting was made at the age of 15, with cooking oil, after a self-portrait by Rembrandt. After schooling at the Lycée Voltaire in Paris, he began studying drawing with the determined project of becoming a painter. However natural this decision may seem to us today, it was not self-evident in the context of the time, both that of his family, austere and destitute, and that of the art studio where he arrived. , one morning in September 1961. The aim was to gain access to higher arts schools – more or less applied – and to the professions of graphic designer or decorator. In the eyes of his classmates, as in those of the professors, his ambition to paint and to live from his painting appeared as an almost indecent presumption. In fact, after entering the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, whose teaching he did not follow, Gilles Sacksick had to resolve to live for a few years illustrating books and newspapers while continuing his pictorial work. It was with a publisher that he met Dominique Halévy in 1964 who, on the point of opening a gallery, offered him to participate in the inaugural collective exhibition (1967) then to do there, a year later, his first personal exhibition. In the following years the exhibitions are linked, in different places, in Paris and in the Lot, where he transforms a barn into a workshop and a living space. From 1974-75, he became interested in the question of the "multiple" work, thus coming to approach the technique of lithography (first with Bramsen), then copper engraving, at the studio of Pierre Pichard, intaglio printer, who will be the printer of his first etchings. During this same period he was introduced to fresco and painted three large compositions, one for the town of Asnières, the other two for Paule Pinelli who would become one of his most loyal collectors. The portrait has always been part of his painted work. Thus, in 1979, he received the Paul Louis Weiller Grand Prize for Portrait, then became, for two years, a resident at the Casa Vélasquez in Madrid. From 1980 to 1985, the Art Yomiuri gallery in Paris regularly showed his work. The first exhibition in these walls is prefaced by Robert Doisneau with whom Gilles Sacksick will maintain a friendship that will only end with the disappearance of the photographer. The other great elder and friend will be André Dhôtel, whose work and attentive presence will accompany the painter throughout his life. Numerous exhibitions, which can be read through publications and catalogs, follow one another in Paris, Saint-Céré, Decazeville, then in London, Bath, New York (Bruton Gallery, Great Britain, from 1986 to 1989), Tokyo , Osaka, and at the Goya museums in Castres, Fragonard in Maisons-Alfort. In 1997, a first and important retrospective exhibition was organized at the Bourdelle museum in Paris. At the same time, Gilles Sacksick became interested in theater and produced (from 1990 to 1992) productions in Paris for the troupe led by his son Thomas. For Les Amours de Don Perlimplin et de Bélise in their garden, by Lorca, he paints the sets, composes the incidental music and designs the costumes. Because Gilles Sacksick devotes himself to music with the same fervor that he devotes to painting. This multiplicity of artistic activities is sometimes surprising. We admire the diversity of talents but we establish in spite of ourselves and according to our own interests, a hierarchy that Gilles Sacksick, for his part, does not recognize. In his mind, the same things, the same vision, the same emotions are said and translated by different mediums. This is how he also devotes part of his time to writing. In 2003, a 35mm film, Sacksick and the Color of Time, was directed by Bertrand and Gerard Emmanuel da Silva. It was screened at UNESCO, as part of the art film festival. On the work of Gilles Sacksick, several authors have written, including Laura Alcoba, Myriam Anissimov, Jean-Louis Augé, Jean de Chauveron, Gérard Emmanuel da Silva, André Dhôtel, Pascal Dibie, Robert Doisneau, Jean-Marie Dunoyer, Claire Etcherelli , Michel Fromaget, Pierre Gibert, Jean Grosjean, Dominique Halévy, Jean-Luc Marion, Lionel Mirisch, Pierre Saïet, Matthieu Saulière, Jean-Marc Sourdillon. In addition to numerous catalogs, the Marie-Hélène Bou gallery published, in 1992, the first monograph devoted to her work. Texts by Pierre Saïet, André Dhôtel, Robert Doisneau accompany it. In 2000 Paule Pinelli (La Flèche du Temps) published a book on the painter's drawings: "Le Carnet", prefaced by Myriam Anissimov. Then, in 2006, Peace fills me, a work designed and published by Takashi Doï (Tokyo).