Elvire Jan

Biography

Born in a family from industrialists of origin Arménie, Elvire Jan made starting from 1911 its studies in Swiss close to Lausanne, where she adds the French to her practice of the Bulgare, of the Armenian and the Turkish . In 1919 it returns to Sofia and proclamation its desire to paint. The Bulgarian government proposing with the Armenians to choose another nationality, its family chooses nationality Persian. Elvire Jan travels in 1920 to Vienna with his/her mother, meets the Psychanalyste S Jung and Adler, then remains in England with Eastbourne, learning the English, the German and the Italian . It returns again to Bulgaria in 1923 and follows the courses of Tzeno Todoroff, professor with the Academy. In 1925 it remains in his/her uncle with New Rochelle with the the United States, is pupil of max Weber to Art Student' S League and discovers modern French painting.

In April 1926, Elvire Jan settles with Paris, is registered with the Académie Julian where it follows the courses of Paul-Albert Laurens and binds friendship with Jean Bazaine. She attends in 1929 the Scandinavian Académie where profess De Waroquier, Emile Othon Friesz, Charles Dufresne. Starting from 1931 Elvire Jan takes part in collective exposures, in particular in 1932 with the Salon of Independent the and in 1938 with the pupils of Stanley Hayter, near which it studied the Gravure with “Workshop 17”. It binds in 1937 with Jean Bertholle, Lucien Lautrec, Jean Moal, Alfred Manessier and Gustave Singier. After a stay in Bulgaria in 1939 it joined in 1943 Manessier close to Mortagne (Perche). It meets there the writer Camille Bourniquel who will be the witness nearest, during fifty years, of the development of its work.

After war, Elvire Jan takes part in the advent of not-figurative art near his/her friends, the “painters of French tradition”, mainly Bazaine, Bertholle, Moal and Manessier, of which it shares the pictorial aspirations. It accomplishes in 1947 a last stay in Bulgaria. Of 1954 with 1957 the Roque gallery regularly presents paintings of Elvire Jan, which also exposes in 1955 to Geneva and Stockholm, prefaced by Bazaine. In 1957, after a passage by Alba-the-Roman where Eudaldo during the summer remains, it discovers with Camille Bourniquel Moissac-Bellevue, in the Top Var, with the accesses of the the Verdon, installing there a workshop where it works six months each year. It constructs its first stained glasses at that time, in particular for the church of the Ézy-on-Eure (the Eure) in 1957 with Raoul Ubac, for the Villa of the Meeting (Paris) in 1960 with Anthoons, Bertholle, Moal, Manessier and Seiler, for the church of Saint-Servan-on-Oust (Morbihan) with Bertholle and Moal. A tapestry is woven in 1970 according to one of its works by the Plasse Workshops it Caisne. A homage is paid to him in 1983 at Jean-Louis Barrault to the Theater of the Roundabout.

Elvire Jan forms part in 1986, with in particular Moal and Manessier, of the team joined together by Bazaine for the realization of the stained glasses of the Gothic cathedral of Saint-Dié (the Vosges). Homages to Elvire Jan are organized in 1990 to the Living room of Borough-in-Bresse, in 1991 with Pérouges and of the exposure retrospectives of its work presented to Arras in 1989, with the Rosny-on-Seine in 1992. Elvire Jan dies in Paris in 1996 and rests in Moissac. New retrospectives of its paintings took place with Ciotat in 1998 and with Saint-Dié of the Vosges in 2004. Elvire Jan forms part ( Peinture , 1955) of the artists brought together in 2006 for the exposure the Lyrical flight, Paris 1945-1956 , Musée of Luxembourg (Sénat) and Musées of the gold Court, Metz: {{ISBN|8876246797}}.

Museums

Works of Elvire Jan are present in the collections, in France, of the National museum of modern art of Paris, of the Museums of Caen, Dijon, Lyon, Metz, Tourcoing, abroad of Dublin (Ireland), Luxembourg (Grand Duchy of Luxembourg), Bergen (Norway), Lund (Sweden) and Lisbon (Portugal).

Work

The style of Elvire Jan falls under a lyric abstraction of impressionist gasoline. Its first nonfigurative paintings go back to 1949. Their structures strongly marked until in 1953 split up then are softened starting from 1957. In 1964 their matter grows rich by multiple superpositions. Around 1970, “its pallet, formerly more complex, evolve/move - as in all the great painters - worms of great simple agreements, not less rich but almost monochromic, balanced on some let us tons modulated, generally containing grounds, colors elementary, who conceal with modesty all the light”, analyzes Bazaine. Its work develops thereafter in a not-figurative paysagism punctuated by a writing of an extreme promptness.

Starting from the Années 1960 Elvire Jan simultaneously carried out many Aquarelle S. “a watercolour of Elvire, it is, under our eyes, the world in formation - we are spectators of the Genèse. The light runs source, invades the vacuum of paper, is propagated in merry waves or dramatic movements with all the force and the freedom of an original water. Clouds, hills, rocks, emerge, undifferentiated. The man is not trained yet and the universe is offered to us in his primitive availability”, still writes Bazaine ( Elvire Jan , Center Noroit, Arras, 1989; Elvire Jan , Books of Penitent, Ciotat, 1998).

Quotations

“In my village of High-Provence, one contemplates broad horizons, then the glance drops towards a stone. The same rate/rhythm animates any thing in nature: rivers and sap of the plants, blood circulation. Inside the workshop, in silence, I try to gather these things. ” (1979)
“Space. Horizons. Grounds of High-Provence where the glance goes to far. Me illumino of immenso , like known as Ungaretti. Then this glance returns slowly on itself, drops towards graminaceous, a stone, invites each one to go down at the bottom of oneself. Very far. The whole near. A single measurement. The rate/rhythm even of creation. Any associate… river, sap of the plants, beat of a shutter, the blood which beats under the temple. ” (1986)

Sources

Camille Bourniquel, Elvire Jan , Guitardes Editions, Paris, 1984.
Camille Bourniquel, Karma , Editions of Fallois, Paris, 1999.

Selective bibliography

Jean Guichard-Meili, Elvire Jan , Editions of the New Images, Paris, 1970.
Camille Bourniquel, Elvire Jan , Guitardes Editions, Paris, 1984.
Elvire Jan, High-VAr , Éditions Carry South, 1986.
Genevieve Adze, Jean Bazaine, Jacques Bony, Gerald Collot, Dominique Gutherz, Elvire Jan, Lucien Lautrec, Jean Moal, Alfred Manessier, Claire de Rougemont, models of the stained glasses of the cathedral and works recent , text of Jean-Pierre Greff, sacred art in France since 1939 , Museum of Saint-Dié, the Saint-Dié-of-Vosges, 1988.
Elvire Jan , texts of Camille Bourniquel, Philippe Piguet and Jean Bazaine, Noroit Center, Arras, 1989.
Lydia Harambourg, Elvire Jan , in the School of Paris 1945-1965, Dictionary of the painters , Ides and Calendes, Neuchâtel, 1993, pp. 256-257.
Elvire Jan , Books of Penitent, Ciotat, 1998.
Camille Bourniquel, Karma , Editions of Fallois, Paris, 1999 in which Elvire Jan holds a very broad place.

Illustration

Serge Thébault, the discrete Bread , Éditions Art-Carries out, 1984 burning '', engraving on copper.

Internal bonds

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