Jacquet, Alain-Georges-Frank

▪ 2009

      French artist

born Feb. 22, 1939, Neuilly-sur-Seine, near Paris, France

died Sept. 4, 2008, New York, N.Y.

was one of the most prominent practitioners of nouveau réalisme (New Realism), the French offshoot of the 1960s Pop art scene; Jacquet's best-known works are modern reimaginings of famous paintings from the past, notably Édouard Manet's Déjeuner sur l'herbe and Olympia. Jacquet trained as an architect in Paris but never studied painting. After his first exhibition of boldly coloured canvases in 1961, he developed (1962–64) the “Camouflage” series, in which he superimposed contemporary images on copies of classic paintings, such as Sandro Botticelli's Birth of Venus enveloped by the image of a gasoline pump. From 1964 Jacquet moved between Paris and New York City, where he was influenced by Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and others. Jacquet later abandoned paint for photo screening; his 1993 solo exhibit at the Pompidou Centre in Paris featured canvases on which he combined fantastic images with NASA photographs from space.

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