Skip to main content
Want more images or videos?
Request additional images or videos from the seller

Jacques Coulais (1955-2011)
Pair Of French Expressionist Abstract Paintings Artists Studio Provenance

Mid 20th Century

About the Item

Abstract Expressionist Composition by Jacques COULAIS (1955-2011) oil painting on board unframed: 5 x 5 inches condition: excellent provenance: all the paintings we have for sale by this artist have come from the artists studio and are all featured in the artists Catalogue Raisonne. Jacques, Paul, Firmin Coulais is a French painter born on March 22 , 1955 in Fenioux ( Deux-Sèvres ) and died at the age of 56, the June 25 , 2011 in Niort (Deux-Sèvres). Born into a farming family, he was the seventh of eight children. Suddenly becoming a quadriplegic at the age of six following poliomyelitis, he overcame this handicap by building with determination an independent life centered on artistic practice and an intense social life. For more than thirty years his house and his workshop have been the center of attraction for many artists, art lovers or simply friends of Niort and all of France. Coulais began to paint with his mouth, as an autodidact. In 1978, he made the acquaintance of a plastic art teacher who advised him and engaged him on the path of watercolour. The freedom granted to him by this technique as well as the flexibility of its application fascinate him. This meeting and the friendship shared with his teacher, lead him and very quickly direct his work from figurative to abstraction in a way that he explores and that he will then find in the works of Kandinsky and Paul Klee. Admitted to the School of Fine Arts in Angoulême, he studied there from 1981 to 1984 and obtained the National Superior Diploma in Plastic Expression at the age of 31. A few years later, Jacques Coulais exhibited at the Museum of Niort and since then, his career has been punctuated by his participation in numerous exhibitions organized very regularly in various French cities as well as abroad. In the 1990s, the AAPBP, Association of Mouth and Foot Painting Artists, opened its doors to him. It gives artists the opportunity to support themselves and devote themselves to their art, free from worries and concerns. Jacques Coulais becomes a scholarship holder of the Association. Two years later, he obtained the status of associate member. He has been a full member since 1998. This remarkable association organizes numerous artistic events every year. The painting of Jacques Coulais is most often abstract painting nourished by his training, his extensive and precise culture and the dreams, or more frequently nightmares, which populated his nights and whose memory he has preserved through four notebooks that he wrote himself. His painting is done either with his mouth or directly on the ground with the wheels of his chair. He had a very thick paper or a canvas, usually square, installed at his table, the brushes, the colors. Anyone present could prepare their colours. He gave extremely precise instructions in everything and got exactly the shade he was looking for. They handed him the brush he was holding with his mouth. For large formats, the brush was attached to a rod that could reach a meter in length. Mastering a very elaborate watercolor technique, he produces his works with his mouth with relentless meticulousness: a “pensive” painting made of “repetitive and patient gestures” which “are a matter of working on oneself ” . This painting refers either to the mandala - a multitude of stains and colors cover the surface and give it its rhythm and its light - or to the calligraphic painting, a singular writing, devoid of meaning whose main driving force is the unconscious, an abstract writing that only expresses its own aesthetics. “It is only a question of one thing, namely, the fundamental impossibility of describing, of writing a representation of the world. Perhaps it is only an attempt at poetic gesture!… For someone whose body has abandoned, gesture is vital. Bibliography Catalog of the exhibition at the Musée du Donjon , Niort, 1991. In absentia , text by Ami Barak, works by Jacques Coulais, ACAPA Éditeur, 1992. Of the sign, of the interpretation, of the incompleteness : interview with Paul Ardenne and Jacques Coulais, Revue La Licorne no 23 , 1992. Art, the Contemporary Age , Paul Ardenne, Editions du Regard, 1997. A small grammar of signs , Jacques Coulais, Cultural Action of the University of Poitiers, 2002. Portfolio of 18 watercolours, text by Dominique Moncond'huy, 2003. Paintings Please, Pay Attention, Please , Barbara Polla & Paul Ardenne, Editions Le Bord de l'Eau – La Muette collection, 2010. Jacques Coulais Pictor Maximus, Body & Canvas . texts by Barbara Polla and Paul Ardenne, interview with Ali kazma, Éditions TAKE FIVE - Trait d'Union collection, 2011. Continuum , texts by Jacques Coulais and Régis Busschaërt, Éditions Le Courtil des Roses, 2011.
  • Creator:
    Jacques Coulais (1955-2011) (1955 - 2011, French)
  • Creation Year:
    Mid 20th Century
  • Dimensions:
    Height: 5 in (12.7 cm)Width: 5 in (12.7 cm)Depth: 1 in (2.54 cm)
  • Medium:
  • Movement & Style:
  • Period:
  • Condition:
  • Gallery Location:
    Cirencester, GB
  • Reference Number:
    1stDibs: LU509313319152
More From This SellerView All
You May Also Like
  • "RED (FRATERNITY)" Oil Painting 75.5" x 147.5" inch by Charles Malinsky
    By Charles Malinsky
    Located in Culver City, CA
    "RED (FRATERNITY)" Oil Painting 75.5" x 147.5" inch by Charles Malinsky Artwork ships rolled due to its size. ABOUT THE ARTIST: Charles Malinsky is an internationally acclaimed Canadian painter. His artwork is represented in many distinguished museums throughout the world and has been featured in countless publications. His extraordinary achievements throughout his career have made him one of the most dynamic figurative painters working in the 21st century. Malinsky was born in 1956 in Yorkton, Saskatchewan, and grew up in the isolation of the vast Canadian prairies. He earned his diploma from the Alberta College of Art and Design in 1978. He then spent his early years in Calgary as a graphic designer in educational Television, winning several international awards from the small, obscure station. Malinsky states, "The shear good fortune to be taken under the wing of a small group of the most talented and creative individuals I’ve encountered in my entire life, including Greg and Gary Crossley, Brian Huffman, John Blackie, and Peter Ivens was a revelatory experience for me." In 1984, he took a posting at ACAD where he taught drawing. It was at this point that Malinsky changed streams and devoted himself to pure art. It took seven years of dedicated studio work for him to find his voice as an artist. His first public exhibition at the Fran Willis Gallery in Victoria, British Colombia created a media sensation normally reserved for rock stars and garnered wide public attention. Malinsky’s richly complex, layered visual narratives are emotionally clear and accessible. His suburban prairie upbringing provided him with a backdrop of physical and social isolation, obsessed with image over content. His early work thus became focused on the rift between what was experienced and what could not be said. Malinsky’s first exhibitions in the early ’90s, during a time when figurative painting was not considered a legitimate, cutting-edge genre for art, flew in the face of the self-created, intellectual elitism of the deconstructionist movement of the time by creating complex, rich, layered narratives accessible through his figurative approach. He first received critical attention for depicting the dark, disturbing undercurrents of mainstream life, eloquently communicated to a popular reception through his figurative approach. In 1998, Malinsky left the comfortable confines of his Calgary studio and his posting at ACAD to take on the International art world. He established a base in Madrid, Spain, and began showing successfully throughout Europe as well as the United States. Malinsky’s paintings and drawings have been the subject of numerous solo and major group exhibitions and his work is represented in many museums, as well as prestigious private and corporate collections, including Fundació de les Arts i els Artistes, Barcelona, Spain(5 works), Collection of the Victoria College of art, Victoria British Colombia, Canada, Nickel Arts Museum, Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Michael Williams Collection, University of Victoria, Victoria, British Colombia, Canada(18 works), Permanent collection of the Gallery of Greater Victoria, Victoria, British Colombia, Canada, Seymour Art Gallery, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. His work can also be found in the private collections of notable celebrities such as Dr. Dre, Phil Everly...
    Category

    21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Impressionist Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Canvas, Oil

  • Fusion of red roses
    Located in VÉNISSIEUX, FR
    This artwork belongs to my “Floral” series which is full of expressive brush strokes where I could experience a floral theme. It is a bold and eclectic mix of art which radiates str...
    Category

    2010s Abstract Impressionist Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Paper, Oil

  • Bouquet of red roses
    Located in VÉNISSIEUX, FR
    This artwork belongs to my “Floral” series which is full of expressive brush strokes where I could experience a floral theme. It is a bold and eclectic mix of art which radiates str...
    Category

    2010s Abstract Impressionist Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Paper, Oil

  • Autumn in Provence, Abstract Diptych Landscape, Warm Tones, Floral Inspiration
    By Natalia Roman
    Located in Barcelona, ES
    "Autumn in Provence" is an abstract painting by Spanish artist Natalia Roman. It is a beautiful abstract architectural painting of unique blurry sha...
    Category

    2010s Abstract Impressionist Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Oil Pastel, Oil, Acrylic, Watercolor, Gouache

  • Abstract Botanical Art Deco Painting Diptych of Nocturnal Flower Fields, Paper
    By Natalia Roman
    Located in Barcelona, ES
    "Nocturnal Flower Fields" is an abstract painting by Spanish artist Natalia Roman. It is a beautiful abstract architectural painting of unique blurry shapes brushstrokes in pastel Ar...
    Category

    2010s Abstract Impressionist Abstract Paintings

    Materials

    Oil Pastel, Oil, Acrylic, Watercolor, Gouache

  • Summer's light bouquet
    Located in VÉNISSIEUX, FR
    This artwork belongs to my “Floral” series which is full of expressive brush strokes where I could experience a floral theme. It is a bold and eclectic mix of art which radiates str...
    Category

    2010s Abstract Impressionist Still-life Drawings and Watercolors

    Materials

    Paper, Oil

Recently Viewed

View All