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 Guy-Francis
Chassant was born in Oran,
the main city of the western area of Algeria, in a family
whose culture was both of Spanish
and French origin. He was very young when his passion
for painting and drawing appeared, through his collection
of art books on the Great Masters.
Using
a pencil, he used to reproduce with great care, pictures
of masterpieces enclosed in the Larousse dictionnary (Jericho,
Millet, David and so on…). Using the watercolour
or gouache technique, he would also copy out paintings
by Monet, Cezanne, Utrillo
….
But as far as his education is concerned,
he graduated in Paris, from a school of engineering.
Thanks to architectural and industrial drawing which was
part of his syllabus, he was able to entertain his passion.
In
1955, he went back to Oran where he
set up a consultantcy firm in steel framework engineering.
But the independence war against France broke out and
during the evening curfew as he would have plenty of free
time, he took this opportunity to go back to his canvasses
and brushes. At that time, he used to paint
representational works which would be exhibited
in a gallery in Oran ; the naive style as well as the
transparent and bright light of his paintings attracted
people's attention.
In 1962, this time came to an end ; because of the Independence
war, the French living in Algeria had to run away and
go back to the mother country and face its demands of
material success. G-F Chassant then chose to settle in
Toulouse where he got married and had two children. During
the following 25 years, he was dedicated to his family
and work. Nonetheless, the social standing that he reached
at that time did not completely prevent him from enjoying
painting ; he devoted all his free time to it.
His
works, still in a representational style, were of a
"naive-sophisticated" nature and showed characters
whose expressions would give a feeling of humour
and humility to his paintings that was emphasized
by his careful work as an attentive colourist. He then
organized successfull exhibitions in several cities of
the Haute Garonne and Aude regions.
In
1994, some decisive events brought him to abandon the
representational style for abstraction which revealed
a restrained pain with a touch of fatalism.
The
infatuation that this form of expression gave rise to,
induced him to unburden himself from the responsibilities
and "notability" he had to face in Toulouse. From
that time on, he has been spending all of his free time
painting.
In 1998, he left Toulouse and settled
down in Nice. As a well-seated
Mediterranean, he then rediscovered
his full identity and the width of his desire of
creation at the same time.
He then discovered sculpture too while realizing abstract
works that expressed his imagination through rounded lines
and curves, which are typical of his style.
" G-F CHASSANT's PAINTINGS,
thanks to their colours and style, give you a feeling
of mysteriously infectious "positivism".
Their many curves ans cercles
drag you into a surrealistic maze
that recalls the origin of life, the mother's womb and
its symbol of perfection.
His
painting is a lively and honest work as the artist follows
a genuine process with a bias for
purity, strength and violence which questions you
and creates a serene belief in the existing hapiness or
in the one that still has to be built.
"
Through G-F CHASSANT, a new world
is disclosed to us.
Appear in Dictionary DROUOT - QUOTATION of the modern
and contemporary Artists.
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