Jacques Monory
© Philipp Hugues Bonan
«I have always thought that the world is cruel and I want to represent it that way. Alongside this violence, the blue becomes a backdrop that creates a sense of distance.»
© Philipp Hugues Bonan
Jacques Monory was born in Paris on June 25, 1934, and passed away in the same city on October 17, 2018. He began his career in art by studying graphic design, painting, fresco painting, and decoration at an art school. Following his studies, he worked for the art publisher Robert Delpire for 10 years: during this time he came into contact with the worlds of artistic direction and photographic documentation. These latter elements would greatly influence his plastic practice.
Thus, he develops the «Monory vision,» composed of real images drawn from a modern and cinematic culture, mostly punctuated by violence of all kinds. Through this vision, Jacques Monory opens a new dimension of narration at the dawn of the 1960s, when the movement of Figuration Narrative emerges. In 1962, he becomes one of the active members of this movement that advocates, among other things, the representation of current events. Jacques Monory’s figurative style is marginal: through his monochromatic scenes of news events, death, and catastrophes, he expresses the madness of the world in his own way. Monory harmoniously blends several categories of art in his work: the accidental framing results from his knowledge in the fields of photography and cinema, while his often blue, pink, or yellow monochromes result from his talent as a painter. Thus, this mixture of processes brings a sense of coldness and a sense of reality to his works, revealing his obsessive imagination. Monory’s works are not only paintings, but also a film in themselves: they open windows onto scenes of crime and other events; they are allegories of the contemporary world.
