Hervé Télémaque
«Waiting»
After leaving Haiti for New York in 1957 and studying at the Art Student’s League until 1960, Hervé Télémaque arrived in France in 1961 and settled in Paris. He met André Breton and participated in the final stages of Surrealism.
A true pop artist from 1963 to 1968, Hervé Télémaque influenced an entire generation of artists who are grouped under the term of Figuration Narrative.
The artist intends to create his own visual vocabulary. His paintings feature everyday objects such as white canes, tennis shoes, and camping tents.
After a long period during which he exclusively practiced collage and assemblage, Hervé Télémaque returned in the 1980s to painting and drawing. In both painting and sculpture, the artist sought to make the mundane things or objects surprising, to open up multiple possibilities of meaning for icons that were originally one-sided.
Starting in the 1990s, Hervé Télémaque continued his research and created astonishing bas-reliefs in fusain, where the chisel replaces the pencil. Undoubtedly influenced by the memory of Voodoo, the artist practices his own magic, mixing coffee grounds with color pigments to give them a heavy, sensual weight. Hervé Télémaque’s work remains original thanks to its historical roots, its mixture of influences, and its constant renewal.
