1928, France - ?
Jean Grard has been living, together with his wife Marie Grard, in a small hamlet, hidden in the country, in the municipality of Baguer-Pican, not very far from Dol de Bretagne. A farmer, he always worked very hard and never had the time for anything else. "I have lived on the farm all my life, I have never thought that I would be making this kind of things." Only when he retired, about five years ago, and after having acquired a weather vane in the form of a mill, he had the idea of creating himself weather vanes. The event that triggered off the creative process cannot be, of course, sufficient to explain the genesis of Grard’s striking artistic production that remains mysterious because of its dazzling power and obsession that emanates from it.
The artistic production of Jean Grard cannot be separated from the way it has been installed : his weather vanes, similar to a carousel, are meticulously spread in his yard, among the flowerbeds cared for by Maria Grard. Embedded in the ground, these polymorphous and solid assemblages turn when the wind blows. How to describe the enchantment, the magic that captivate the passers-by ? Because Jean Grard managed transforming the traditional art of weather vanes in a particularly original entertainment art. The "return of the repressed" seems to be contagious : in our turn, invited to renew with the child’s imagination in us, we are surprised, when facing the works of Jean Grard, to feel childish exultation, doubtlessly the same we were overtaken with when we managed to touch the bobble of the carousel.
We can observe, here and then, the valse of the yellow and red birds, mounted by the little men with a profile of Pinocchio. Their red nose contrasts with their eyes made from marbles. Hundreds of figures overlapping each other, turn around. The phenomenon of repetition is impressive, the contrast between the motionlessness of the postures and the movement is striking. From this opposition, a powerful atmosphere has been released : the mysterious marble eyes of Yvette Horner or André Werchuren, the tense and tension provoking teeth prevent us from thinking that the artistic production of Jean Grard belongs to naive art, its strangeness suddenly provokes anxiety. This brut production has been created in a manner that can also be considered raw : in ancient cowshed, in which a number of rabbits still move about in a hutch. Jean Grard knows how to work with a pen-knife and a hammer. Nevertheless, these are sufficient for the creation of the works, which amaze us through their know how, the meticulousness and skilfulness of which they testify : "I am making them without any clear idea, you need a lot of patience, you need to make this but you also have to know how to make this," Jean Grard confides to us. To his talent of a sculptor, we also should add that of a colourist and a painter. Thanks to the lacquer he uses, his painting resists the bad weather, ideal to increase the contrasts, the colors sparkle brilliantly. Apart from these moving (and literally moving) installations, Jean Grard has also created several sculptures that he installed in his kitchen, among them the big Yvette Horner, from whom he would not part, for anything in the world .... Accordion, the post office, Crédit Agricole, Air France, we can find all kinds of references of agricultural France, and we are touched, projected by this travelling in imagination. The production of Jean Grard was shown for the first time by the association l’Abri.
Written by Patricia Allio
SEE ALSO : ALLIO (Patricia), L’Art brut à l’Abri, l’Abri (art brut rural et industriel), August 2001.
