Jean Sabrier (1951 Cestas – 2020 Bordeaux) was a self-taught and multifaceted artist; for five decades, he developed a protean body of work that stands at the crossroads of art history. His poetic and subtle pieces blend rigour with humour, creating sensory experiences that both enchant and unsettle the viewer.
Helped by guiding figures with whom he remained in constant dialogue—such as great Renaissance masters of perspective Piero della Francesca and Paolo Uccello, the unclassifiable Marcel Duchamp, or his British counterpart, visual artist Richard Hamilton—, Jean Sabrier experimented with the limits of our field of vision, constantly forcing our gaze into unexpected détournements.
His works in sculpture, installation, photography and painting all elaborate upon the core concepts of movement and time. Through his experience with diverse media, he worked out a nuanced and grounded reflection on the very meaning of art and the status of artist. As a publisher, he interrogated the handicraft process of collation and bookbinding – with each publication being conceived, laid out and assembled from A to Z by himself alone. These publications also allowed him to painstakingly document his artistic process, inclusive as they were of his correspondence, notes and work methods… ultimately, of everything that had contributed towards creation.
This approach of the artwork as a "total" and connected experience culminated in the animated films developed by the artist during the last twenty years of his life, as metaphorical, overarching insets of his own theoretical investigations and artistic concerns.