Childhood
Jean-Paul Perrenx wurde am 20. Juni 1950 in Sétif (Algerien) geboren. In mehreren Texten erzählte er humorvoll von seiner Kindheit, die von prägenden Erinnerungen durchzogen war, wie etwa diesem Ausflug in einen Zirkus, wo er echte Löwen sah: „[...] Es gibt immer wieder Leute, die mich fragen, warum ich Löwen male. Und ich sage ihnen, dass ich es selbst nicht weiß, da ich nie welche gesehen habe, außer in der Sendung ‚La Piste aux Etoiles‘, als ich klein in Algerien war, und ein bisschen auch in ‚La Vie des Animaux‘ im Fernsehen, und einmal in echt in Algier, weil ich unter der Plane eines Zirkus hindurchgeschlüpft war, um ohne Eintritt hineinzukommen, da ich als Kind, so zwischen sechs und elf Jahren, allerlei Unfug angestellt habe, und in diesem Zirkus gab es einen Löwenbändiger mit Löwen.“
He explains his future calling as a painter this way: "[...] if I am a painter, it is because of the sea—which was blue—that I used to gaze at constantly from the kitchen window back in Algeria [...]"
One day, his mother gave him a box of colored pencils: "I just remember my mother buying me a box of colored pencils [...] it was to keep me quiet so I wouldn't go hanging around the streets."
He recounts the memory of an early "artistic experience" that changed his view of the world:
"[...] my drawings were displayed on the school walls. Once, I drew a house in perspective for the first time in my life; I instinctively grasped how to handle the sides, the vanishing lines, and so on. I enjoyed drawing it, and that day, I truly saw the school desks in a different light."
His childhood was marked by the Algerian War. As the situation became too dangerous, his parents decided to move to France in 1962 and settled in Dijon. There, he encountered the cold, the snow, and the customs of Burgundy. He drew and painted his first canvases. His dream was to attend art school.
Fine arts
He spent five years at the School of Fine Arts in Beaune and then Dijon, obtaining the National Diploma of Fine Arts in 1971.
During this period, he produced hundreds of drawings covering a wide range of themes. These included many faces, as well as scenes that were sometimes fantastical or linked to the world of artists or the sea. He also created clay sculptures. His teachers took note of his talent. He participated in his first exhibitions—first at the Maison des Jeunes in Talant and later at the Galerie Vauban in Dijon—where he displayed drawings of birds (including an "Albatross") and human heads (including an "Eskimo"), as well as a terracotta sculpture titled "Tadpole."
At the Dijon School of Fine Arts, he met the woman who would become his wife and with whom he would have two daughters.
1980-2000
In the 1980s, he entered competitions and won several awards, including the prestigious "Prix des Sept Collines de Rome" (in 1980). He went on to hold numerous exhibitions—at the Musée Greuze in Tournus (which was hosting a contemporary artist for the first time), as well as in Paris, Dijon, Tournus, Cannes, Cologne, and, of course, Mâcon, his beloved city, where he would live for the rest of his life. Alongside his daily artistic work, he taught visual arts at various schools.
Starting in 1988, he began a long series centered on a haunting theme: "suspended" couples—figures floating, sleeping, or sometimes tethered together in an undefined space-time. In 1990–91, he also depicted a series of "fusion" couples ("Assembled Figures"). This was followed by the "Giraffe-Women" series (1996–1997), "Tête-à-tête" (1997), "Window-Figures" (1998), and "Sleepers in the Grass" (1998–2004).
Afterwards...
He continued a "Visages" (Faces) series until 2006. In 2005, he created a series of drawings blending humor and intertextuality, including "Couples adoptant" (Couples Adopting). In 2010, he began the "Ambiance/La Fête" (Atmosphere/The Party) series.
Towards the end of his life, knowing since 2012 that he was ill, he produced numerous series—such as *Les Moineaux* (Sparrows), *Les Plages* (Beaches), and *Les Femmes vers Lunel* (Women Towards Lunel)—all of which bear witness to his tireless desire to paint, his creative talent, and that "childlike" humor he never lost. He continued to paint until his death in Mâcon on February 20, 2015.
His painting defies classification. Some critics speak of "Expressionism," others of "dreamlike figurative art." The body of work is so vast that it offers plenty of scope for discussion. One can note a predilection for certain themes—present in early works from the 1960s and 1970s (the world of artists, beaches, couples, faces...)—that reappear in later works, deepened and renewed.
