Why Bertrand likes: Nature lovers, I particularly like the walks in the forest that Jean-Claude Chastaing offers us with his juxtaposed colors representing the leaves that we see moving with the wind. The artist sublimates reality in his works and gives us to see the invisible or the intimate. I also like its provocative side which denounces conformism as in “the housewife” or “working girl”.

Why Nathan likes: I love the sleuthing part of our job - discovering unfairly overlooked or unknown artists and then bringing them to you at an affordable price. There is no better example than Jean-Claude Chastaing. Photography has always been a hobby of mine, and I'm old enough to have had a darkroom in the 1970s where I would work late into the night after playing cello at the Sydney Opera House! So to find someone just a few years older than me who has taken the photography to such a beautiful place is magical. I will keep some of these mini masterpieces hanging on my walls. I can't say which of his works I prefer, but there's probably something for everyone. He was obviously a tortured perfectionist, always looking for new and better ways to express both his wide range of personal emotions and his different experiences.

Expert's comment: Jean-Claude Chastaing has an atypical career marked by a difficult childhood. His non-conformism pushes him artistically towards the surrealists. Also a poet, he tries with his works and in particular with photography to achieve an unexpected form of poetry. Like the surrealists, Jean-Claude Chastaing refuses to perceive life and death, the real and the imaginary, the past and the future, the communicable and the incommunicable in a contradictory way. He photographs the real but by his various additions (painting, collage…) he introduces into his works a dose of dream, of imagination revealing an underlying life. The woman is idolized and inspiring and sex is sometimes sacred. His often strange characters let us perceive the imperceptible as the unconscious. Nature, another important subject, and the elements that compose it become the privileged accessory of the dream and allow it to offer us a new conception of the world. In this nature, the forest is populated by fauna and flora that are both real and fantastic. The city and in particular Paris, the city par excellence for the artist, is dehumanized, it becomes a place of distraction where one can hide or get lost. Certain photos with its lampposts at night also refer to the work of René Magritte. The artist is unpredictable, he uses provocation and humor to better denounce the moral order, conformism or received ideas. The works proposed and selected by the gallery are of 3 types:

1- Photomontages and Collages: Influenced by the collages of Max Ernst (he also pays homage to him in one of his works), he builds an unusual planet with his photomontages, photography then paradoxically becomes the instrument favored by the artist to question reality. Always in the manner of Max Ernst, Jean-Claude Chastaing for his photomontages mixes techniques. He cuts and pastes photos, sometimes adds color collages and for some photomontages, also retouches with paint. He also devotes himself from time to time to frottage on the result obtained which he photographs again which gives an unexpected and strange smooth aspect in phase with the surrealist doctrine. He will often use this technique with the portraits of men, women and children giving them both a human and ghostly side.

2- Paintings on photo: The artist also particularly likes painting on photo, the latter mainly in black and white then replacing the canvas on which he paints with expressive colors saturated or even sometimes almost phosphorescent. The influence of Vincent Van Gogh is obvious, he pays homage to him in one of his collages. 

3- The photographs: Surrealist also in pure photography, the artist uses the close-up which gives his works and in particular his flowers, puddles… a supernatural character. His photographs, which could be described as abstract, are worked on during the printing in the dark. Jean-Claude Chastaing uses chance, he manipulates, burns, and also assists as a spectator in the creation of his work. The result is reminiscent of the experience told by Man Ray who, by mistake, developed a blank sheet of paper “before my eyes an image was taking shape…”.

Biography : Jean Claude Chastaing was born in 1946 to a washerwoman mother and a worker father. In 1968, he decided to enter the seminary but resented submission. He then became active in politics while starting to write poems. Horse attack, a Franco-Walloon poetry magazine published in Paris by Didier Paschal-Lejeune devotes an entire 36-page issue to him on June 4, 1972. At the same time, he begins drawing and painting. In the 80s, he discovered what would become his passion and his favorite medium: photography. The artist will exhibit his art photos in the Carré de Baudoin. An altruistic, discreet and simple man, the artist does not wish to promote his work despite his undeniable talent.