Grégoire Michonze
Encyclopedia
Chisinau
Chișinău is the capital and largest municipality of Moldova. It is also its main industrial and commercial centre and is located in the middle of the country, on the river Bîc...
(Bessarabia
Bessarabia
Bessarabia is a historical term for the geographic region in Eastern Europe bounded by the Dniester River on the east and the Prut River on the west....
), Russia (now Republic of Moldova.
From 1919-1922, Michonze studied at a local art academy where, painting Russian icons
Russian icons
The use and making of icons entered Kievan Rus' following its conversion to Orthodox Christianity in 988 AD. As a general rule, these icons strictly followed models and formulas hallowed by Byzantine art, led from the capital in Constantinople...
, he learned to master the technique of painting with egg tempera. He continued his studies at the Academy of Painting in Bucharest and befriended the artist Victor Brauner
Victor Brauner
Victor Brauner was a Romanian Jewish painter of surrealistic images.-Early life:He was born in Piatra Neamţ, the son of a timber manufacturer who subsequently settled in Vienna with his family for a few years. It is there that young Victor attended elementary school...
. In 1922, Michonze moved to Paris and met Max Ernst
Max Ernst
Max Ernst was a German painter, sculptor, graphic artist, and poet. A prolific artist, Ernst was one of the primary pioneers of the Dada movement and Surrealism.-Early life:...
who later introduced him to the Surrealists, notably André Breton
André Breton
André Breton was a French writer and poet. He is known best as the founder of Surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto of 1924, in which he defined surrealism as "pure psychic automatism"....
, Paul Éluard
Paul Éluard
Paul Éluard, born Eugène Émile Paul Grindel , was a French poet who was one of the founders of the surrealist movement.-Biography:...
, Yves Tanguy
Yves Tanguy
Raymond Georges Yves Tanguy , known as Yves Tanguy, was a French surrealist painter.-Biography:Tanguy was born in Paris, France, the son of a retired navy captain. His parents were both of Breton origin...
and André Masson
André Masson
André-Aimé-René Masson was a French artist.-Biography:Masson was born in Balagny-sur-Thérain, Oise, but was brought up in Belgium. He began his study of art at the age of eleven in Brussels, at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts under the guidance of Constant Montald, and later he studied in Paris...
. He furthered his art studies by taking classes at the École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts
École des Beaux-Arts refers to a number of influential art schools in France. The most famous is the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts, now located on the left bank in Paris, across the Seine from the Louvre, in the 6th arrondissement. The school has a history spanning more than 350 years,...
. During this period, Michonze met and developed a strong friendship with the Jewish École de Paris artist Chaim Soutine
Chaim Soutine
Chaïm Soutine was a Jewish painter from Belarus. Soutine made a major contribution to the expressionist movement while living in Paris....
. Between the period 1934-1936, Michonze exhibited at the Salon des Surindépendants. He described his work at these exhibitions as "Surreal naturalism". Michonze fought in the war and, after 1943, settled into a studio on Paris's Rue de Seine. He took up French citizenship in 1947, and in 1949, the French Fund for Modern Art acquired his now seminal canvas La moisson (The Harvest).
From 1954-1977, Michonze continued and perfected his life's work. He had extended stays in the United States where he spent time with his close friend, the American author Henry Miller
Henry Miller
Henry Valentine Miller was an American novelist and painter. He was known for breaking with existing literary forms and developing a new sort of 'novel' that is a mixture of novel, autobiography, social criticism, philosophical reflection, surrealist free association, and mysticism, one that is...
. Michonze also travelled frequently to Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
where he exhibited, visited with his mother, and re-acquainted himself with his Jewish roots. He died of a heart attack in his studio at rue de Seine in Paris on December 29, 1982.
Michonze is primarily known as a landscape and figurative artist. A marked majority of his paintings include depictions of groups of people - families, villagers, peasants, children - and most works evince an allegory or narrative of some kind. Each work is imbued with mystery, a sort of hidden dialogue that enhances the appeal of the work and piques the viewer's curiosity. In a 1959 letter to the British art critic
Art critic
An art critic is a person who specializes in evaluating art. Their written critiques, or reviews, are published in newspapers, magazines, books and on web sites...
Peter Stone, Michonze wrote of his work: "My subjects have no subject. They exist only for a poetic end. If the poetry is there, the canvas is complete. No histories. Only pure poetry, preferably untitled."
Selected exhibitions
- 1997: Galerie Francis Barlier, Paris
- 1985: Musée d'art moderne, Troyes (major retrospective)
- 1974: Givon Gallery, Tel-Aviv
- 1947: Mayor Gallery, London
- 1946: Arcade Gallery, London
- 1934: Salon des Surindépendants, Paris
External links
- Artnet.com (Grégoire Michonze)
- Gallery97 Tel Aviv Examples of Paintings by Grégoire Michonze