Ivan Messac
«Waiting»
One of the singularities of Ivan Messac is that he did not wait for someone to offer him a space to exhibit his work. In 1969, he painted a fresco on paper in the hallways of the university in Nanterre, which marked his artistic and political commitment.
It is not surprising that in the same year 1969, he participated in the Salon de la Jeune Peinture. Two years later he exhibited three of the paintings from the series « Minorité absolue » (often called: Les Indiens), which were noted by the critic Jean-Louis Pradel who described him as the Benjamin of the narrative figuration while José Pierre dedicated an article to him in his dictionary of Pop Art.
The entirety of his work from the 1970s bears witness to this commitment. Whether he designed the sets for a ballet for the BTC, participated in artist meetings in Portugal during the eyelet revolution, or provided support for the Solidarité union, he acts both as an artist and as a defender of human rights.
Even today, while developing a plastic work presented by prestigious galleries, supported by the press and recognized by institutions, he is interested in the most disadvantaged people, Street Immo, and supports the Popular Aid Foundation.
True, we knew and recognized him as a sculptor, but it is the painting that he had embraced in his youth that has been the subject of his research for more than fifteen years.
