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Henri Landier was born in Paris on
June 14 th, 1935, and all began in 1952, when at the age of 17, leaving the family home, he entered into painting as others
enter into religion. Jean d'Esparbès - painter in Montmartre - welcomes
him rue Saint-Vincent and lends him his studio. From this time, while studying
at the "Ecole Nationale des Arts Appliqués" and for a few months at
the "Beaux-Arts", he frantically draws and paints the material world he chose
to haunt :
-the Saint-Vincent street where he found a refuge,
-the "bistrots de Montmartre" which receive him when coldness is too hard,
-the Seine and Canal de l'Ourcq quays,
-the streets of Paris, he indefatigably walks through sketches note-book in
his hand...
This is the green period, marked by more than 120 oil-paintings, more than 400 drawings
: an unexpected and spontaneous painting gush, something like a liberation
which finds expression in dark, tense, often hard works, sometimes stamped
with despair, always with clearness.
These 1952/55 years are the ones, where through multiple meetings, multiple material
difficulties and the knowledge he gets of his creation capacity, takes form
little by little the painter we know to-day.
Then, it is the world discovery : during almost 5 years, Henri Landier sails over the seas. He contemplates, skies and horizons, seas-immensities and colored harbours. He continues to draw, keeps his eyes open, observes the world he goes through, lands in Maracaïbo as in Amsterdam...
In 1959,
back in Paris, "la vie de Bohème" begins again, but the perspective
has changed and his palet enlarges itself : he paints again and begins his
engraver work.
From his stays in Villers-Cotterêts, he brings back the vision of burnt
hangars back, of plows , of infinite plains, of skies and forests. Caen and
Dunkerque harbours inspire him drawings of blast-furnaces, wharfs, cranes,
and the marvellous
engraving of " Le docker " prostrated by his condition.
Later on, in Verneuil-sur-Avre, in Lonlay-l'Abbaye,
he draws and paints the country, always trees and his familiar surrounding.
From 1960 to 1965, it is the town subject and especially Paris, which becomes the main one. His first engravings about Paris, night landscapes on the fantastic limits, attract a lot of art lovers. His engraved portraits of Michel Simon, Pierre Mac Orlan... have become classics.
In 1964, Henri Landier plants his studio in the Mill of Pisseloup near Château-Thierry. There, he engraves and prints the 44 original woodcuts for "The Songs of the Old Lantern" by Pierre Mac Orlan.
In 1965,
travel in Provence where
he has been painting landscapes of the Luberon hills, sun-drenched quarries,
closed down factories, vineyards in automn, but also large insects and numerous
portraits. His work extolls the Haute-Provence luxuriant colours when he realizes
vibrant lithographies in striking contrast with the tone of earlier etchings.
Every aspect of performing arts attracts him
- theatre, dance, circus, music-hall - and his posters for Georges
Brassens, Canari the clown, Diane Dufresne, the
Buto dancers... witness for that.
He has engraved a succession of important suites of colour prints:
-1968 : The Midsummer Night Dream, by Ariane Mnouchkine
-1970 : Rabelais, by Jean-Louis Barrault,
-1972 : Goethe's
both Faust
-1975 : Henri Landier opens the "Atelier d'Art Lepic" at the foot of the "Butte Montmartre" in Paris. This is in this galery-studio he continues his creation, and that yearly exhibitions are organized (by J.Gordin , J.P Guicciardi) .
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-1972 to 1983 he paints about a thousand paintings of
large sizes on theme of chao and destruction ; cities in construction, harbours
and shipyards, Buto dancers, pallid pierrots, cities and factories in ruins,
barriers of public works, piles of scraps and recumbent figures.
A work exposed partially in 1997to the Art Lepic workshop at the exit of the
book " The Labyrinth" from Philippe
Montoriol which redraws the various themes of this metaphysical thougt.
1985 : Tuscany and Venice are harmonious pauses which he retranscribes in big sweet and joyfull watercolours which make us relive the thread of seasons.
1991 : Moët and Chandon company orders him an important exhibition on the thema "Four seasons in Champagne" ; engravings, large watercolours, and red chalks.
1992 : Praha, city of "coup de foudre". About a hundred of large paintings of this fairy and magic city, colourful.
1999 : For the 250 th anniversary of Goethe's birthday, Jena museum (Germany) exhibits his Faust, a series of 32 coloured etchings with the trials and preparatory copper plates. A work welcomes wtih enthusiasm by the german public.
2000 : To celebrate his "50 years of creation" a CD-ROM retracing his life and work is issued entitled "Henri Landier or the coherence of a passion".
2001 : "Homage to the Woman" exhibition : paintings, drawings to pay homage to the Eve's girls. Portraits celebrating with a retained sensuality the body of the eternal feminine.
2002 : "Confidences of the darkness", honour to Pierre Mac Orlan. Exhibition at the Pays de Seine-et-Marne museum in Saint-Cyr-sur-Morin, around the acquisition of a beautiful exemplar of "The Songs of the Old Lantern" by Pierre Mac Orlan, illustrated of 44 woodcuts engraved by Landier.
2003 : Exhibition "Peace ". Large
paintings, testimony of the opposition of Italians to the Irak war. Colourful
pacifist banners floated to the windows of the town of Imperia.
Exhibition " The confidences of the heart", museum Richard
Anacréon of Granville, around his friendship and his work with Pierre
Mac Orlan.
2004 : Exhibition "On sea with Henri Landier". Drawings, watercolours, engravings and paintings, testimony of his 5 years of navigation in the Merchant marine. Exposition conjugated to the publication of the book of Dominique Lebrun (publishing house : Omnibus).
2005 : Exhibition "Honour to Monique Morelli" great lady
of the french poetic song. Through the works of the painter-engraver Henri
Landier, a period is rediscovered : the one of Pierre
Mac Orlan, Louis Aragon, Léo Ferré, Georges Brassens
...
Exhibition to the Normandie museum, the haven of Caen (1958 à 1961).
2006 : Exhibitions : "Gravures in aquatinte",coloured etchings
ant in aquatinte representing Henri Landier's work from about 15 years and
"Provence de Landier" paintings rétrospective from
1970 to 2006. The Sainte-Victoire mountain,
the Luberon landscapes, portraits, still-lives
and insects. In the Montmartre museum, exhibition of the Monique
Morelli collection (1960 to 1992).
To-date, numerous personal exhibitions have produced testimony of his work evolution through out France, Europe, United States, Japan ...
www.artlepic.org