Marilyn, 2003

Christian Guy  

Christian Guy (1948-2006) At the frontiers of reality, between pop art and hyperrealism, Christian Guy expresses the highlights of his time. Born in Lyon on February 29, 1948, he already had to his credit, as a fetus, a victory in the Marseille-Cannes motorboat raid in July 1947. As soon as he perceived the usefulness of his hands he draws, he paints, he writes. At the age of 11, he produced his first series of felt paintings on lacquered hardboard / La Corrida. The same year, he acquired a television set. We are in 1959. The image box projects him into a new communication society. After having scoured all the “crust fairs”, he studied fine arts at the Kunstgewerbeschule (de) in Zurich (Switzerland). Its objective is to free itself from official painting, traditional techniques. The masters of his masters are Robert Rauschenberg, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, George Segal, James Rosenquist and Andy Warhol. Impregnated with their designer spirit, he returned to France and settled in Paris. Publicis, Dupuis-Compton and Publi-Service serve as a launching pad but also as a revealer. It is definitely unsuited to consumer society and its excesses: “The art of banana peel and verbal masturbation makes me resistant to any traditional capital structure. It is Pierre Barret who gives new impetus to his career by entrusting him with the layout of Moto Journal. Full-time until 1977, then two out of four weeks until 1986, this professional arrangement leaves him fifteen days of painting per month. He then meets the glycerophthalic lacquer better known under the name of the Ripolin brand. Procreation on piles of wood layered like mummies, in a rhinocerotic flow of pigments and tufts of brush without masking, in a subtle and triangular balance of colors.