Deux profils à la manière de Jean Cocteau, Circa 1964

Raymond Moretti   Famous Artists

Raymond Moretti was born in Nice on July 23th, 1931. His Italian parents were fleeing fascism.

In 1947 he painted "Moses breaking the Tablets of the Law," now at the Museum of the University of Jerusalem.

Spotted by Jean Cocteau, also living in the south of France, they painted together gouaches and one oil on the theme of "The Age of Aquarius." Moretti met another great artist, Pablo Picasso, who will be present all along his career and in difficult times.

In 1965, Raymond Moretti holds an important exhibition, " World Screaming" in Paris, with twelve oils of 12 m² each, including his version of "Guernica". His career was launched. In 1973, his sculpture "The Monster", so named by Joseph Kessel, is exposed at "La Defense" in Paris. This monumental work occupies an area of ??1000 m² on five floors.

In 1977, he committed to publishers Armand and Georges Israel, to defend him on the national and international scene. A collaboration that will last over 10 years in which they will create many bibliophile books and more than two hundred exhibitions of the painter in the world. Among the major projects Moretti, a decoration of the Forum des Halles in Paris of a gigantic mural of 200 m² dedicated to the history of humanity, and book illustrations like "De Gaulle" by Malraux, the "Haggadah of the Fifth Cup "(1980)," Massada ","initiatory path" with the great Master Michel de Just (1981), "Man of La Mancha"(1985) and "The poetic works" (1986) by Jacques Brel, or the book "Les Illuminations" of Rimbaud, who will receive the Golden Eagle, the highest award given to an international art book (1982)...

Passionate about music, especially jazz, he devoted part of his works to this art, culminating with the book "Jazz" (1984) with Frank Tenot, Daniel Filipacchi, Michel Legrand, Claude Nougaro. Still very present in the 1990s, we note that decoration of a tower at "La Defense" in Paris which rises to 32 meters adorned with 672 tubes of glass fibers, or 20 years of collaboration with the literary magazine on the occasion of the commemoration of the 300th issue in 1992.