"On the threshold of the last home, far from the Apocalypse
Tribute to Jean Carzou (1907-2000)
"The painter of the transfiguration of beauty
Galerie Lise Cormery, Paris, 2021

Although Carzou painting is innovative his Opus will never be repeated and his style unique. He continues to be exhibited in numerous international galleries, in 2008, Galerie Lise Cormery, Paris presents major works by Carzou. In 2021, despite the pandemic, Lise Cormery has the chance to exhibit again this great master of painting.
The 2021 exhibition of Jean Carzou at Galerie Lise Cormery in Paris shows works from 1953 to his final work of 1997, "The door towards the last resting place ".
Carzou was a Great Painter, although magnificent his art was never limited to a decorative function, his paintings are superb tools used by the painter in order to denounce destruction in our societies, victims of a senseless progress, although without surrendering to ugliness so easy to depict, paintings technically so easy to produce, while beauty is so difficult to reach.

The beauty of the peaceful nature of the early 1950s
His three paintings, "Dans la forêt, In the forest", 1953, "Paysage basque, Basque landscape", 1954 and "Paysage de neige, Snow Landscape", 1957, peaceful, are painted in the midst of a lush natural environment with the passing of the seasons.

The Apocalypse
His works from 1957 to 1978, open with "Factory Chimney, 1957" painting exhibited for Carzou's famous exhibition, "Apocalypse", and "Le Réseau ferroviaire 1975 Train network". Although far apart they both show what is nowadays part of our familiar landscapes, nevertheless threatening, apocalyptic, bringing suffering knots in our lives with these senseless tangles, destructive industries, mortifying, enslaving us and giving birth to the industrial deserts of our lives.

"Terre Earth"
"Terre 1978 Earth", is an oil on canvas signed and dated at the bottom left, signed, titled and dated on the back, measuring 89 x 116 cm, it will be exhibited at the Galerie Isy Brachot in Brussels in 1978 and at the Château de Vascoeuil in 1981. We observe that if a sun rises on this earth, as a sign of hope, it depicts as well the loneliness of our earth, lonely island, thus our world, although lush, appears somewhat desolate.

The transfiguration of the beauty of magnificent and apocalyptic goddesses
Three goddesses appear haughty on the oil paintings "Souvenir 1974 Memories", "Chimera 1978 Chimera", "Carthage" painted in 1968, in the distance, we discover landscapes, between imaginary settings and fantastic, phantasmagorical ruins. "Carthage" painted in 1968, exhibited at Nice Acropolis in 1988, shows in the foreground a sublime beauty bristling with iron, as we discover, far apart in the background the desolate ruins of Carthage, which is now just a modest archaeological desert, so far from the city and from life.
These female apparitions are not only painted, but as always with Carzou, they are noble and superbly, very finely chiselled on the canvas.
But these transfigured women are pierced, By what? By ultrasonic waves ? By searing and sinister thoughts? Or by an invisible evil ? Destructive emotions ? Are they under attack, victims of external enemies ? Yet they remain placid.
With a contemporary Carzou style magnificent and unique, all these mysterious works of art create an atmosphere of dreamlike desolation although full of a certain form of ancestral plenitude.

Versailles
Carzou painted Versailles in the eighties, exhibited in Tamenaga Gallery in Paris, France, Tokyo, Kyoto in Japan in 1994 as well as Wildenstein Gallery in New York. Thus our 2021 presents "Versailles, Le parterre d'Apollon" 1985, oil on canvas that will be as well exhibited in Galerie Bernheim Jeune, avenue Matignon, Paris in 2008. "Versailles La Colonnade" 1980 ; "Versailles, La Grille du Grand Canal" 1980 ; "Versailles, le parterre d'Apollon" 1985, "L'Etang The Pond" 1991.

His sunny path "Towards the light of the last home"
In 1995 his paintings are illuminated with sunny colors, with "Phare, Lighthouse" 1995, Le "Soleil et la Mer, Sea Sun" 1995, et Carzou Solo Show is ending with his magnificent and last oil on canvas of 1997, "Composition" where Carzou, "illuminated" is guiding us towards "The light of the last Home".

Excerpt from Lise Cormery's book "The Art of Post-War Ecole de Paris"


Jean CARZOU (1907-2000) Biography

Karnik Zouloumian was born in 1907 in Alep, Syria, his parents are Christians from Armenia, he settles forever in Paris, France in 1924.
Many private and public international collections are including his works of art such as Musée national des Beaux-Arts d'Alger, National Gallery of Victoria Melbourne Australie, Musée Laurier Victoriaville Canada, Art Institute of Chicago États-Unis, Musée d'art Nelson-Atkins Kansas City, Etats-Unis, Musée de l'Ermitage Saint Petersbourg, Russie, Le Caire, Alexandrie, Adelaïde, Djakarta, Musée d'art de Pully Suisse. France : Marseille, Musée Granet Aix-en-Provence, Château Grimaldi de Cagnes-sur-Mer, Musée d'art Roger-Quilliot, Clermont-Ferrand, Château de Val, Lanobre, Musée d'art moderne André-Malraux, Le Havre, Musée des Baux-de-Provence, Musée des beaux-arts de Lyon, Centre national du costume de scène Moulins, Cabinet des estampes de la Bibliothèque nationale de France Paris, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Musée National d'art Moderne Paris, Musée des beaux-arts de Rouen, Musée du Domaine départemental de Sceaux.

Carzou has Many Solo Shows in national and international Museums and Art Galleries, they are including : Galerie contemporaine, rue de Seine, Paris, 1939 Galerie de Berri, Paris, 1942 Galerie des Trois-Quartiers, Paris, 1943 1944 Galerie Drouant-David, Paris, 1946, 1948, 1951, 1953 Galerie Arthur Tooth & Sons, Londres, 1954 Galerie Les Arts, Vence, 1957 Galerie David et Garnier, Paris, 1957 L'Apocalypse, 1958 Escales, 1959 1960 Le Paradis terrestre, 1960 Provence, 1962 Lumière d'été, 1968 Figures rituelles, Paintings and watercolours, galerie Wildenstein, New York, 1959 Château Grimaldi, Cagnes-sur-Mer, 1960 Œuvres graphiques, galerie Soleils, Paris, 1962 Galerie La Gravure, 1965 Bibliothèque Forney, Paris, 1966 Rétrospective, Palais de la Méditerranée, Nice, 1966 Musée de l'Athénée, Genève, 1966 Rétrospective 1932-1967 Floralies internationales, Musée des Beaux-Arts d'Orléans 1967 Baukunst Galerie, Cologne, 1969 Le Bateau Lavoir, Touques, 1972 Dessins, aquarelles, Galerie Tamenaga, 1973, 1985 1994 Hommage à Carzou, VIe Biennale de Trouville-sur-Mer, 1974 Carzou, L'œuvre gravé, galerie Vision nouvelle, Paris, 1975 Œuvres récentes, peintures et dessins, Galerie Nichido, 1976 Peintures, dessins, lithographies, Musée postal, Paris, 1976 Château de Val, Lanobre, 1977 Galerie Isy Brachot, Bruxelles, 1978 Hommage à Carzou, Château de Rochechouart, 1978 Rétrospective, Galerie de la Présidence, Paris, 1979 Galerie Mikimoto, Tokyo, Japon 1980 Château de Vascœuil, 1981 Galerie Paul Vallotton, Lausanne, Suisse 1982 1983 Château de Villeneuve Fondation Émile-Hugues, 1983, 1986 Carzou, l'œuvre graphique, hôtel de Chemellier, Angers, 1986 Carzou, l'œuvre lithographique, Musée d'art et d'histoire Saint-Denis, 1987 Carzou, les années 1930-1940, Galerie de Francony, Paris, 1988 Acropolis, Nice, 1988 1989 Galerie Ducastel, Avignon, 1989 Galerie Tamenaga, Tokyo et Osaka, 1995 Carzou, l'Apocalypse, Fondation Carzou, Manosque, 1992, 2007 Carzou - Toiles et dessins pour le théâtre, Carzou "Versailles" Galerie Tamenaga, Paris France, Tokyo, Kyoto Japon, Galerie Wildenstein New York, 1994. Ancien Evêché de Sarlat, 1995 Abbaye de Saint-André-le-Bas de Vienne, 1996 Rétrospective, espace Bonnard, Le Cannet, 1997 Hommage à Jean Carzou, Halle au blé d'Alençon, 2000 Centenaire de la naissance de Carzou, Exposition dans le cadre de l'année de l'Arménie en France, Orsay, 2007 Galerie Bernhein-Jeune, Paris, 2008, 2012 Galerie Lise Cormery A et C, Paris 2008 Espace Art et liberté, Charenton-le-Pont, 2011 Visions surréelles, Galerie Richard, Paris, 2013 Le Terrier, repaire d'artistes, Loches, 2017 Rétrospective, Centre Valery-Larbaud, Vichy, 2018 'Il était une fois Carzou", Château de la Forêt, Livry-Gargan, 2018 Galerie Au Duc de Richelieu, Roanne, 2019 Galerie Lise Cormery, Paris, 2021
Excerpt from Lise Cormery's book "The Art of Post-War Ecole de Paris"