Jean-Marie Ledannois

To understand the work of Jean-Marie Ledannois, it is necessary to know the man, his history and his context of creation. Son of a peasant mother, the artist has a very personal relationship with the earth, he is a lover of nature whose paintings represent the four elements that compose it. As a result, water, air, earth and fire guide the choice of its characteristic color palette. The artist is indeed known for his incredibly intense blues that he applies to the paper with many nuances, thus showing that the main subject of the work is undoubtedly light. It is clear that he works the other colors with the same strength and the same subtlety, thus immersing us in a mysterious world.

Jean-Marie Ledannois works in his house-workshop in the countryside (in the hamlet of Bléry in the Yvelines) while listening to baroque opera.

The subjects of his gouaches are not limited to the landscapes themselves, it is also the encounter between the reality he observes and his unconscious, the emotions that emerge from it. “The artist also draws from it the satisfaction of who knows what intimate desire, a vague feeling of reunion which provokes relief and relaxation" (1). He draws his inspiration from the woods and fields that surround him, but his childhood spent with a philosopher tutor, pushes him to approach painting more intellectually than decoratively. Don't be fooled by the apparent simplicity of Jean-Marie Ledannois's gouaches, they hide a long and meticulous work and are the fruit of intense reflection. The artist appreciates life and work, he has a passion for the technical aspect of his art. He likes the materials, the tools, the supports that he puts on a table top after having, as he says, "done his cooking" Indeed, he prepares his own colors by mixing pigments, gum arabic and water.

Faced with his works, the viewer is initially frozen by the power and beauty of the colors, which pushes him to focus his attention on the present moment. In a second step, he is as if drawn inside the work, hypnotized by subtle and delicate internal movements of shadows and light. The artist projecting his own dualities in his gouaches, he then provokes in the spectator the influx of contrasting emotions such as joy and melancholy, appeasement or energy.

It is true that the painting of Jean-Marie Ledannois is both raw and nuanced, feminine and virile, melancholic and happy. These emotions then allow the viewer to seek his own sensitivity to better appropriate the work.

The great talent of the painter is to know how to grab the spectator by the color and to give birth to contrasting emotions in him. The artist excels in the technique of gouache which alone allows these effects of shadows and light so subtle. The works that we present date mainly from the 1970s, a period during which he absorbed the contributions of Joseph Albers (1888-1976) and Mark Rothko (1903-1970) moving from geometric abstraction to abstract landscape painting. Despite these influences, the artist shows real originality consistent with a strong and sensitive personality. His work constitutes a discovery for WD Art Gallery Modern because the artist liked to live alone in his country house and had little affinity with the actors of the art market. This first exhibition is therefore in line with the DNA of the gallery, which is to share with you our passion for discovery and to contribute with humility to giving artists the place they deserve on the market.

(1) "Ledannois (essay on the painter Jean-Marie Ledannois)", Éditions Pierre Horay, Paris, 1977