Jean-Charles Blais’s Suite Nipon Pour CB (1985) is a linocut that presents a striking, graphic composition centered on a pair of clasped hands. Rendered in bold black and white against a vivid red background, the image emphasizes contrast and texture inherent to the linocut technique. The simplified, expressive lines carve out the figure’s torso and arms, while the hands—firmly joined—suggest themes of unity, introspection, or quiet tension. The surrounding red field, filled with abstracted interior forms, adds intensity and spatial ambiguity. Created during a period when Blais explored raw, direct imagery, the work reflects both physicality and emotional restraint within a limited but powerful visual language.
Jean-Charles Blais (France, 1956) is a contemporary artist renowned for his innovative use of torn advertising posters as canvases, creating layered compositions that blend figuration and abstraction. His work often explores themes of urban life and the human form, contributing significantly to the free figuration movement.
LinocutLinocut is a printmaking technique similar to woodcut, where a sheet of linoleum is used as the relief surface. The design is carved into the linoleum using a V-shaped gouge or chisel, creating raised areas that form a mirror image of the final print. Ink is applied to the raised areas with a roller, and the linoleum sheet is then pressed onto fabric or paper. The printing can be done by hand or with a press.
Jean-Charles Blais’s Suite Nipon Pour CB (1985) is a linocut that presents a striking, graphic composition centered on a pair of clasped hands. Rendered in bold black and white against a vivid red background, the image emphasizes contrast and texture inherent to the linocut technique. The simplified, expressive lines carve out the figure’s torso and arms, while the hands—firmly joined—suggest themes of unity, introspection, or quiet tension. The surrounding red field, filled with abstracted interior forms, adds intensity and spatial ambiguity. Created during a period when Blais explored raw, direct imagery, the work reflects both physicality and emotional restraint within a limited but powerful visual language.
Jean-Charles Blais (France, 1956) is a contemporary artist renowned for his innovative use of torn advertising posters as canvases, creating layered compositions that blend figuration and abstraction. His work often explores themes of urban life and the human form, contributing significantly to the free figuration movement.
I work with great trust in the processes of painting.
- Jean-Charles Blais
Jean-Charles Blais is a prominent artist from the international modern art movement, who enrolled at the ""École des Beaux-Arts"" in Rennes at the age of eighteen, where he studied for a five years. Several artist had a fundamental influence on his works including Nouveaux Réalistes, Pop-Art and Arte Povera of Mario Merz. Blais was inspired to begin a new type of painting after observing torn advertising posters pasted one over the other.
He developed a pictorial language that focused more on the space eluded to 'behind' the surface than the two-dimensionally formulated image conveyed by the actual surface. Blais used the multi-layering of materials and his technique for observing the coincidental patterns created by edges and folds to produce creative motifs, figurative elements, houses, animals, plants and tools on the back. He most often used print mediums and formats from etchings to ephemera. In the 1980’s he held numerous solo arts showcases in France, later in Germany and the US as well, which aided in publicizing his work known to the broader public. In 1990 his first large-scale work in a public space drew a significant amount of attention. Perhaps one on Jean-Charles Blais greatest professional achievements is being tasked with decorating the Assemblée Nationale Métro station in Paris. Currently, Blais has been exploring digital technologies and new materials in his contemporary works. (Artist website)
Body art involves creating art directly on or with the human body. Common forms include body piercings and tattoos, but it also encompasses practices like branding, scarification, scalping, body painting, full-body tattoos, body shaping, and sub-dermal implants. Body art can also refer to a subcategory of performance art where the artist's body is central to the artwork.