Erró

Les Grands Enfants de Mao, Pop Art, Figuration Narrative, Contemporary Art

2007

UDMUNDUR GUDMUNDSSON, known as ERRÓ, is an Icelandic postmodern painter known as the co-founder of the Figuration Narrative movement in France in the early 1960s. Erró discovered art in a catalog from the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and became passionate about painting at the age of 10. After studying art in Reykjavík from 1952 to 1954, and then in Oslo, Florence and Ravenna, he settled in Paris in 1958, before moving to Thailand and the island of Formentera. The artist's career was rich in encounters with Brauner, Masson, Miro, Man Ray , Giacometti and Max Ernst, Duchamp and Breton, whom Erró met in Paris, and then Jean-Jacques Lebel, a friend with whom he collaborated on Happening from 1963 to 1965. He also befriended the curator Pontus Hultén, who placed him under his protection. Voluntarily provocative, Erró portrayed despots, comic-book heroes and gods of Greco-Roman mythology in a plastic universe full of enigmas. Hitler, Mao and Disney characters rub shoulders in a climate of violence and sexuality. Heir to Lichtenstein, Warhol, Fahlström, Roberto Matta and Rosenquist, the artist interweaves styles and graphics, multiplying contemporary allegories. The artist's numerous creations include "Mecanismo, mécamanifeste, 100 poèmes mécaniques" and a mechanics manual; sets and masks for Éric Duviv's film in 1962-1963; a giant fresco in Angoulême in 1982; the portfolio print created by Cristel Éditeur d'Art for the 9th Prix Jacques-Godet and 2nd Prix Denis-Lalanne in 2012; exhibition with Jean-Jacques Deleval and Speedy Graphito at the Arsenal de Soissons. A resolute pasticheur, Erró also uses Picasso, Léger, Disney and Dalí to stigmatize the society of spectacle and consumerism. He took part in exhibitions such as those at the Venice Biennale in 1975, the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris in 1999 and FIAC in 2001.