Jean-René (born 22 February 1983Notice d'autorité de la Bibliothèque nationale de France.) known by his pseudonym, JR () is a French photographer and street artist who began his career on the streets of Paris. His moniker is derived from his first name, Jean-René. He is known for flyposting large black-and-white photographic images in public spaces. Referring to himself as a photograffeur—a portmanteau of "photographer" and the French word for graffiti artist—JR has described the street as "the largest art gallery in the world."Elizabeth Day ""The street art of JR", The Observer, 7 March 2010.Full Interview "The largest gallery in the world". Excerpts from an interview of the artist broadcast on France 2 on the 1 pm news, July 20, 2009"JR's street art from around the world" The Daily Telegraph, accessed, 26 October 2010Unattributed, "Street Art." Tate Modern, accessed, 6 June 2016. His work often challenges widely held preconceptions and the reductive images propagated by advertising and the media."
JR's work typically explores themes such as identity, freedom, and social participation.Excerpts from the book Women Are Heroes published by Alternatives, 2009. He gained early recognition for pasting photographic portraits on buildings and urban structures in Paris, and later expanded his work internationally. He won the 2011 TED Prize, which he used to launch the global Inside Out Project, a participatory art initiative.
Time magazine included JR in its list of the 100 most influential people in 2018.
Life and career JR was born in Paris in 1983. His mother was originally from Tunisia.
JR began his career as a teenage graffiti artist who was by his own admission not interested in changing the world, but in making his mark on public space and society. His graffiti efforts often targeted precarious places like rooftops and subway trains, and he enjoyed the adventure of going to and painting in these spaces. After finding a camera in the Paris Metro, JR and his friends began to document the act of his graffiti painting. At the age of 17, he began applying photocopies of these photographs to outdoor walls, creating illegal "sidewalk gallery exhibitions".
JR later travelled throughout Europe to meet other people whose mode of artistic expression involved the use of outdoor walls.Excerpts from the book Carnet de Rue (My Street Diary) published by Free Press, 2005 Then, he began wondering about the vertical limits, the walls and the façades that structure cities. After observing the people he met and listening to their message, JR pasted their portraits up in the streets and basements and on the roof tops of Paris.
Between 2004 and 2006, JR created Portraits of a Generation, portraits of young people from the housing projects around Paris that he exhibited in huge format. This illegal project became official when the City of Paris put JR's photos up on buildings. At the beginning of his projects, JR wanted to bring art into the street: "In the street, we reach people who never go to museums."Excerpts from the article Déclic Urbain published in L'Express, November 17 – 23, 2005, n°2837 In 2005, JR began pasting photographs of individuals from Les Bosquets on the walls of Paris to rectify the unbalanced coverage and representation of the people in the epicentre of the French riots that year.
In 2007, with Marco,Marc Berrebi called Marco contributed to the project Face 2 Face in the Middle East in collaboration with JR. Interview with Marco. He created Face2Face, la plus grande expo photo illégale jamais crééeExcerpts from the book Face2Face published by Alternatives in 2007. JR put up enormous photos of Israelis and Palestinians face to face in eight Palestinian and Israeli cities on either side of the Separation Barrier. Upon his return to Paris, he pasted these portraits up in the capital. For the artist, this artistic act is first and foremost a human project: "The heroes of the project are all those who, on both sides of the wall, allowed me to paste the portraits on their houses."Les héros du projet sont tous ceux qui des deux côtés du mur, m'ont autorisé à coller sur leur maisonExcerpts from the article JR s'affiche à Paris published in L'Express November 15, 2007 Full ArticleIn 2008, JR undertook an international tour for Women Are Heroes, a project in which he highlights the dignity of women who are often targets during conflicts.Excerpts from a report about the artist's work in the favela Moro da Providencia in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil. Broadcast on TV5, September 25, 2008. Full Report.
On 20 October 2010, JR won the TED Prize for 2011. He used the $100,000 award money to start the Inside Out Project, a global art initiative that has allowed thousands of people around the world to speak to their communities through portraits pasted in public space. This prize brought him and his work to New York City where he opened another studio, and inspired pastings in the area such as those done in 2011 of members of the Lakota Native American Tribe from North Dakota.
In 2013, he continued working in New York City, with the Inside Out Project in Times Square, which challenged advertising with a massive work of art consisting of thousands of portraits of locals and tourists.
In January 2014, JR collaborated with the New York City Ballet for their second annual Art Series program, by exhibiting work in the theatre in Lincoln Center, including an interactive piece on the floor of the promenade. This collaboration led JR to explore the artistic medium of choreography in another project with the ballet months later. In March 2014, JR created an installation with 4,000 faces in and on the Pantheon in Paris. In August 2014, JR was invited to make UNFRAMED in the abandoned hospital of Ellis Island, an important chapter in the history of immigration.
In 2015, he directed the short movie "ELLIS", starring Robert De Niro. The movie, set in the abandoned Ellis Island Hospital complex BBC JR's UNFRAMED art installation, tells the forgotten story of the immigrants who built America.
In 2016, JR was invited by the Louvre and made I. M. Pei's famous glass pyramid entrance disappear through a surprising anamorphosis. That year, he also worked on his Giants series in Rio de Janeiro during the 2016 Olympics, creating new gigantic sculptural installations at the scale of the city, depicting competing athletes in action, supported by scaffolding. His work putting an emphasis on the beauty of the athletic movement. His latest projects include a museum exhibition dedicated to children at Centre Pompidou, a permanent collaboration with the Brazilian artists Os Gemeos at Palais de Tokyo in Paris, in a space used to store stolen pianos during World War II, a gigantic installation at the US-Mexico border fence, and a film, Faces Places, co-directed with Agnès Varda, travelling around France to meet people and discuss their visions.
JR calls himself an "urban artivist",Excerpts from the essay "Avis à la population!" written by Christian Caujolle and included in the book Women Are Heroes published by Alternatives in 2009. () he creates pervasive art that he puts up on the buildings in the Paris area projects, on the walls of the Middle East, on the broken bridges of Africa or in the favelas of Brazil. During the pasting phase, community members take part in the artistic process. In Brazil, for example, children became artists for a week.Excerpts from an interview of the artist broadcast on TV5 July 20, 2009. Full Interview In these artistic acts, no scene separates the actors from the spectators.Excerpts from the essay "Art Participatif" ("Participative Art") written by Christian Caujolle and published in the book Women Are Heroes published by Alternatives in 2009. ()
After having exhibited in the cities from which JR's subjects came, the photos traveled from New York to Berlin, Amsterdam to ParisFull article "L'Ile Saint Louis nous regarde" ("L'Ile Saint-Louis Is Looking at Us") published in Libération 24 October 2009. As JR remains anonymous and does not frame his huge portraits, he leaves a space for an encounter between a subject/protagonist and a passerby/interpreter, and this is the essence of his work.
In 2018, JR partnered with Time magazine, to produce their cover story, featuring over two hundred Americans who have been impacted by guns, including "hunters and activists, teachers and police officers, parents and children", to produce "Guns in America"—a talking mural—on one of the most polarizing issues in the United States today. JR filmed the 245 contributors in three selected cities, Dallas, St. Louis, Missouri, and Washington, D.C. The November 5, 2018 Time cover is a collage of those individuals, whose profiles become a gateway to 245 unique stories.
In March 2019, JR again reimagined the Louvre pyramid in a 3D optical illusion. He used his iconic black and white stickers to make it appear as if the pyramid continued underground in an excavated crater. It was left in shreds within a day as visitors walked across it. JR embraced its short duration and even said that brevity had been his intent. He stated on Twitter: "The images, like life, are ephemeral. Once pasted, the art piece lives on its own. The sun dries the light glue and with every step, people tear pieces of the fragile paper. The process is all about participation of volunteers, visitors, and souvenir catchers."
JR is well known for his works with a humanistic approach that portray social realities. In November 2019, JR worked with a group of prisoners in a maximum-security prison in Tehachapi (California) and created a piecea piece on the ground of a large courtyard of that institution. The great mural, photographed from a drone, shows the portraits of prisoners and former convicts who shared their stories. His intention was to give "a voice to inmates" and humanize their environment.
He is married to the artist Prune Nourry.
Critical reception In 2010, during a radio program in San Diego, California, artist Shepard Fairey stated: "JR is the most ambitious street artist working.""I think at this point JR is the most ambitious street artist working" Propos extrait d'une interview sur KPBS, la Radio de San Diego avec JR, Shepard Fairey et Pedro Alonzo pour l'exposition du Musée d'art Contemporain de San Diego MCASDFull Interview Le 15 juillet 2010. Le Monde has described his work as "revealing humanity."Excerpts from the article JR les femmes vues du ciel published in le Monde 1 October 2009. Full article With over a million Instagram followers, he's one of the most popular artists on social media.
In March 2014, in Les Inrockuptibles, Jean-Max Colard described his installation at the Panthéon as "demagogicJR, ton univers impitoyable, Les Inrockuptibles". The same magazine also accuses him of "transforming the wild and rebellious practice of graffiti and postering into a legal, pompous and official art".
In April 2014, Fanny Erlandis for Slate judged that her Not A Bug Splat project was "Ultra-demago".Fanny Arlandis, Drone et photo d'enfant: le nouveau projet ultra-démago de l'artiste JR, Slate, 8 avril 2014.
In the summer of 2015, his project with the evocative title AV and JR two artists on the go arouses incomprehension and harsh criticism. The project, led by recognized artists, appeals to the public generosity of a crowdfunding platform – a type of funding rather reserved for the launch of new artists. The media describe the project and its approach as candid and clumsy at best, condescending and demagogic at worst.
Works
28 Millimetres