Ernest Pignon-Ernest is one of the precursors of urban art in the world. Long before Banksy or JR, he created from the 70's committed images making the walls of big cities speak, often with life-size human representations in black and white that call out.
Born in 1942 in Nice into a modest family (his father was a slaughterhouse worker and his mother a hairdresser), the artist now lives in Paris. At the age of 12, he had a revelation when he discovered Picasso and later El Greco and Bacon. To avoid being confused with the french painter Édouard Pignon, he adopted his artist's name when he started creating his first ephemeral images on telephone booths in Paris or public walls with the objective of "awakening memories".
His work is indeed very political, his charcoal drawings denouncing wars, xenophobia, injustices, human rights violations... The committed artist is also known for his portraits of famous people (musicians, writers, poets) including the iconic one of Rimbaud. Initiator, with Daniel Buren, of the French urban art, Ernest Pignon-Ernest considers that his work is not to be visited in the museum but that it must be lived in the street where it echoes the events which took place there.
I use time, space, memory. I try to make the street a work of art, while most street-art people make the street a gallery, an exhibition space.
Made with charcoal, black stone and notched erasers of different thicknesses (to shape the shadows), Ernest Pignon-Ernest's posters can be painted, drawn or silk-screened, always with the aim of blending into the urban architecture. One of his most famous creations, for example, is that of Pasolini depicted holding his own body in his arms. It has been visible since 2015 on the walls of Rome, near the beach where the controversial Italian filmmaker and poet was murdered.
Prior to the creation, the avant-garde artist indeed meticulously observes a place, usually chosen because it is full of history and meaning: colors, lights, symbolism, quality of the walls ... for him the place is an integral part of the work and is totally inseparable.
World famous, this humanist pioneer of street-art has been exhibited several times all over the world and recently (2020) in an atypical place: the great chapel of the Popes' Palace in Avignon where 400 of his works were put forward. To see other works of this brilliant creator to whom the street-artists of today owe so much, go to this site.
Valerie from Comme des Français
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Discover other French artists with international fame:
- A sculptor playing with his environment
- A pioneer of science fiction
- A fabulous fabulist always modern
Photo credits: © Ernest Pignon-Ernest / Courtesy Galerie Lelong & Co.
Name of works: 1) Pasolini assassinated - If I come back - Roma/Trastevere, 2015. 2) Portrait of Ernest Pignon-Ernest © Fabrice Gibert Galerie Lelong & Co. 3) Rimbaud, 1978/2018. 4) Warwick Market, 2003. 5) La Commune, 1971. 6) Parcours Genet - Brest, 2006.
