Les Pas

Internationally renowned for his illustrations produced for prestigious clients such as The New York Times, the Centre Pompidou, Les Inrocks, The Guardian, RCA Records, National Geographic and the Grand Palais, the Breton artist Jean Jullien has been developing a graphic commentary on the contemporary world that is as amusing as it is acerbic.

Populated by what he calls his Paper People, Jullien’s universe draws as much from the popular culture of this child of the 1980s as from the history of poster art – from Ungerer to Savignac. More recently, he returned to the South Finistere coast of his childhood to devote himself to painting. From Lesconil to La Torche, he observes dunes, boats and surfers, with all the genius of the line that we know, giving the feeling of wanting to escape from the schizophrenia of press commentary to put the long time on canvas.

For his solo exhibition Les Pas in Clohars-Carnoët, Jean Jullien invested this small village in Finistere where some of the heroes of the Pont-Aven School settled at the end of the 19th century.

One of his Paper People leaves the paper sheet to go on a journey in the steps of his illustrious predecessors, in volume and on a human scale. We discover him sitting in the tavern-inn where the painters stayed, run at the time by Marie Henry (today reconstituted identically at the Maison Musée du Pouldu), lying on the beach of Le Pouldu whose landscapes and famous light inspired them so much, or working, brush in hand, in the Chapelle Saint-Jacques, transformed into an artist’s studio.

This artistic fiction through the village continues at La Longère with an exhibition retracing the history of Paper People in Jean Jullien’s practice.

Discover the work of the artist: jeanjullien.com
Event organized in partnership with the City of Clohars-Carnoët.

Image: Paper people © Jean Jullien