Hot
Springs sculptor Jeanfo
transforms steel into works of art
By
Lorielle Gutting
ADVERTORIAL COORDINATOR
Born Jean A.
Faure in Le Teil, France, in 1931, the artist known
simply as "Jeanfo" of Hot Springs has
dabbled in painting and other art forms before
dedicating himself to sculpture. "Sculpture must
be lovely to touch, friendly to live with, not only
well made," Jeanfo said. 'In its presence, we
should respond and vibrate to life as we are able to
see and discover beauty all around us. We must not
try to make pieces of art which speak our language;
we must go with them to the point where others will
understand their language. Art must give suddenly,
all at once, the shock of life, the sensation of
breathing. Each material has its own life; we can't
destroy a living material to make a dumb, senseless
thing. We cannot make out of marble what we would
make out of wood, or out of wood, what we would make
out of steel. Purity, simplicity are never the goal.
To arrive at the real sense of things is the one
aim.'
To say
Jeanfo, now 73, has had an interesting life would be
an understatement; he holds a degree in civil
engineering from the Special School of Public Works
in Paris, and also participated in the well-known
theatrical school, Palais de Chaillot, where he
studied with the noted pantomimist Marcel Marceau,
after which he served as director of the Comedie de
Normandie for five years. Jeanfo traveled the world,
engineering jobs in France, Africa and Scandinavia.
From 1962 to 1974, he worked predominately in Ivory
Coast, Lagos, and in France as a civil engineer,
constructing factories, bridges and other engineering
projects. It was in 1974 when he began his first
artistic en&127deavors: Painting. His work
garnered him numerous solo exhibits throughout Europe
- in Paris and Aix-en-Provence, France; Darmstadt and
Heidelberg, Germany; Turin, Italy; and Trondheim,
Norway.
After
arriving in New York City in 1978, Jeanfo visited the
French Consulate, which led him to Washington, D.C.
Through the French Embassy, he was offered the chance
to exhibit his paintings at the National Academy of
Sciences from October 1979 to January 1980. He was
one of the first artists to participate in the
Arts-in-the-Academy program, displaying 14 paintings.
The National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian
Institution acquired in its art collection Jeanfo's
painting, "Aurore II." This show led to an
exhibit in the fall 1980 at the John Young Museum and
Planetarium in Orlando, Fla. and featured a special
display - a computer-generated light show of his
canvases projected on the ceiling of the hemisphere.
"The
goal of a piece of art is to communicate with other
people, to share with the spectator some particular
feeling as expressed by the artist," Jeanfo
said. 'If the artist uses a language that nobody
understands, where is the communication in an
impossible conversation? With my heavy French accent,
I find myself many times in this situation. What is
the interest to prepare a meal that nobody can eat?
It is benediction for an artist if everybody can feel
something in his work - even if it only a tiny part
of it."
By 1983,
Jeanfo made a drastic decision - to abandon painting.
"It was becoming boring," he said. 'I
created space scenes, concentric circles that were so
popular at the time." As he constructed a series
of thin steel circles as a prop to be artificially
lit, Jeanfo felt the appeal of three-dimensional
works and made the transition into creating
sculptures. Jeanfo took welding lessons from an
ornamental ironsmith in Dallas, Texas, and began
experimenting with different styles. He first created
brightly concentric circles much like the series of
planet-like orbits in his paintings before
transitioning into a series of profile studies of the
female figure. His next project, a series of origami
cut-outs, are among his most whimsical. Part of the
origami series is on display at the Sculpture Garden
at his studio, including 'The Kiss" of two
beloved penguins, "The Little Circus"
starring a goat and monkey and the Acrobat" with
a dashing peacock coaxing his timid understudy to
make the great leap.
Upon his
arrival in Hot Springs, Jeanfo purchased the Robert
E. Lee Elementary School at 134 Rugg St. which was
closed in 1960 due to a lack of pupils after the area
of the city supplying students for the school became
commercialized. The building was used for a time as
part of the old Hot Springs High School facility
before becoming Jeanfo's art studio and sculpture
garden.
Jeanfo uses
no studio assistants or apprentices, preferring to
work alone. The large space of the old gym is now
filled with pulleys, chains and hardware that enables
Jeanfo to lift, bend, turn and weld pieces of cut
steel plate, shaping them into his signature
sculptural statements. The school's former playground
is now the Sculpture Garden, while a series of
classrooms have been transformed into a gallery of
Jeanfo's work.
Although
many artists seek a muse from their fellow humanity,
Jeanfo prefers to walk m the neighboring @ around
I-lot Springs to gather inspiration from nature.
Trees, leaves, rocks, branches, and presently -
driftwood - are among the small fragments of nature
that Jeanfo inspects, often collecting an item that
will be transformed into a steel permanent work of
art.
"Art is
first of all light. Light reaches us through the
senses. Without the sense of sight, there is no
light, and hence, no perspective, no volume,' Jeanfo
said. "the movement of colors and shapes in
nature is created by light and becomes reality. This
'reality' which comes to us from contemplation of
nature is human vision." The sense of reality in
art is one aspect of which Jeanfo is passionate.
"Reality is not apprehended by the objective eye
and then channeled to the subjective mind for
interpretation," Jeanfo said. "Rather, each
piece of art is the direct projection of a waking
dream, an inner vision. It contains the organic
essence that is mankind. This is not a one, two or
even three-dimensional space; instead it is an
inner-dimensional space which belongs to each
individual. What is real is not the external form,
but the essence of things. Starting from the truth,
it is impossible for anyone to express anything
essentially real by imitating its exterior surface.
The only true art will come from what you find inside
yourself."
Currently
his work is on display at the National Air and Space
Museum in Washington, D.C., the National Bank of
Commerce in Memphis, Tenn., the Hot Springs Civic and
Convention Center, Historic Museum in Little Rock,
the Civic Center in Fort Smith, and a few pieces are
on display at the Statehouse Convention Center in
Little Rock. "My piece, 'The Conche' is on
display there, although they have not purchased it so
it is not part of their permanent collection,"
Jeanfo said. "I like that piece because it
symbolizes one of the first instruments to be found
in nature." The piece is fitting when
considering that the nearby Robinson Center is home
to the Arkansas Symphony Orchestra and numerous other
musical endeavors that visit Little Rock, Jeanfo
said. Among his numerous exhibits, Jeanfo's work has
been featured in the Botanical Garden in Memphis,
Tenn., Audubon City Park in New Orleans, La.,
Wildwood Park in Little Rock, Denver City Park in
Denver, Colo., the 25-Year Retrospective show in Hot
Springs, and the Statehouse Convention Center in
Little Rock.
"An
artist holds a responsibility to the future",
Jeanfo said. "We are committed to life far
beyond ourselves via the generations to come and
there is no turning back," he said.
Click
on a link below to view more art and information:
Jeanfo
Homepage
Corporate
Installations
Private
Collections
Group
Shows
Exhibition
History
Jeanfo
Gallery
Jeanfo
Studio
Sculpture
Garden
Jeanfo
Sculpture Inquiry
