Gérard Deschamps, 1998

Gérard Deschamps (born 1937) is a French contemporary artist associated with the Nouveau réalisme movement.

Career

Deschamps was born in Lyon, France. His first exhibition took place in 1955 at the Gallery Fachetti in Paris. At this time he abandoned traditional oil painting techniques, which he said lacked flexibility, and turned to making collages that incorporate pictures of items from Manufrance catalogs. In 1957, he exhibited at the Galerie du Haut Pave in Paris paintings made of rags and pleating and in November that year, he was sent to Algeria for 27 months of military service.

Back in Paris, in 1960 he met Raymond Hains and Jacques Villeglé and officially joined the New Realist group in 1961 (a year after its official founding). That year he began using U.S. Army tarps with fluorescent colors in his work. He also worked with rags from Japanese and Belgian advertising, as well as sheets of plastic kitchenware patchwork. In the same period, he also used armor plates and metal enclosures that served to isolate aircraft engines.

In 1965 he created bananas, made of folded and colored wire, which can be up to 8 meters long and can produce moiré patterns.

In 1970 Deschamps moved to La Châtre, home of his grandparents.

Since then, his creative activity is ongoing, and he shows in exhibitions and galleries in Paris and abroad.

In 1980, Deschamps produced playful outfits made of assemblies of swimwear, balloons, skateboards and surfboards, which bring Pop Art to mind. In the 1990s, he created colorful beach ball blends packed in nets, and then, in 2001, skateboards.

Main exhibitions