Jean-Marc Dublé

 Profile:

The remarkable and original art and drawings of Jean-Marc Dublé.

His prolific drawings and design concepts are found in the many pages of his art diaries, notebooks, and almanacs. They follow each other from page to page like a kind of chronicle, a journal of the daily life of an artist who observes, looks at life , his life, the lives of those he meets daily, life of the world, the news, and the images of life that involves the media in our lives. But he does it with a distance and detachment, waiving and commenting on the absurd, and creating hilarity and comedy out of events, history, by accessorising with simple strokes of his pen and pencil, commenting on the idiocy and futility of life . His designs emphasise the outline, identify patterns with efficient precision that goes to the essentials. The contributions of the cartoon, its spatiality, its ability to focus the eyes on the move, which crystallizes detail of the content of the subject matter by delivering the visual narrative where we then meditate upon the resultant imagery created. All this, and more, we see things graphically simplified in cartoon-like form and linear drawings akin to the style of Pop Art. But this is not all. In his drawings Jean-Marc also demonstrates a surrealism and strong contemplative imagery which are in complete harmony with the persuasiveness of contemporary design. 

The strength and the presence of Jean-Marc’s drawings should not detract from his other works which take root in both sculpture and painting. In fact, these rectangular and cylindrical works are made of solidified volume books by color which are fixed and freezes, the smells in the paint, the solidity of structure and imagery. The strong, dynamism of his colouration seems nourished by a chalky after-stroke which creates the a cosmetic effect. Sometimes a pattern is inlaid whilst leaving protruding, textural relief. These sculptures and paintings sometime give the illusion of a hard ceramic and give themselves over to belonging to a polychrome world with symbolic meanings once again, as in the drawings, offset social issues that occupy the ” world “of contemporary art. Jean- Marc Dublé can be disturbingly obtuse about his approach and attitudes, and with often a ‘knowing twinkle’ in his eye. He appoints , some “Cookies” – he adds with a gleeful derision : ” nothing ”  and the other, somewhat ambiguously : ” Keepsakes .” The private detective novel Catalan, invented by Manuel Vázquez Montalbán, fine cook and fundamentally anarchist, Pepe Carvalho, before preparing a meal burns a book once loved . In contrast to this renunciation, and in relation to books, Jean- Marc Dublé, not without nostalgia, sees the re-uses in the world of art transcends content, metaphorically illegible in a new status icon of postmodernity where the artist stands, ironically, in duality, and at a contemplative distance. Okay, so he is philisophical and bizarre, but we like him! He definitely has something to say! It is entirely up to you what you take from his unusual art and personal perspective. Hang them on your wall or stand them around the house and you will always get a remarkable response from your friends and guests, as well as from your own contemplative opportunities. 

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