MOD – Fred Jourdain - Affranchi

MOD

The bold and spontaneous strokes of Fred Jourdain are showcased in this collection of works created with black ink.

Inspired by Jung's archetypes, Tarot, and the counterculture of the 1960s in France and England, a gallery of characters and symbols juxtaposed in the paintings evoke a lucid and cold vision of a world where death and beauty coexist, and in which elegance and punk collide.

His characters gaze at us with eyes that are sometimes curious, sometimes defiant. They judge or ignore us with the playful nonchalance of the artist who, behind his paintings, does the same.

MOD [mod]: abbreviation of "modernist"

Noun & adjective

A - Modification made to something in relation to its original state to alter its appearance or function.
B - Contrary to tradition / At the forefront.
C - Tends to constantly reinvent itself.

MOD: FRED JOURDAIN

There is a clear break between his new works and those, very colorful, which made his name over the past two decades, but the same attitude is present here, accentuated. Dark, unapologetic, sometimes dripping, sometimes executed with surgical precision. Always, the characters dominate his paintings.

"There is no break, no denial, these drawings and paintings represent me. It is I who look at you, and it is you who look at me. It’s an intimate visit into my sketchbooks, which I like to call my ‘notebooks of wanderings."

Love, death, women, and vultures.

“Chinese ink is a medium as fluid as water, yet completely opaque in its pure form.

You can dilute it with water to create washes of infinite values. When using the right paper, you can create textures that closely resemble the grain found in photography.

I have always been fascinated by the grain found in enlargements of silver prints, and I spent years trying to replicate that in my works. You can see that here, with MOD"

— Fred Jourdain