Jean-Max Albert (born 1942) is a French painter, sculptor, writer, and musician. He has published theory, books on artists, and a collection of poems, plays and novels inspired by quantum physics. He perpetuated experiments initiated by Paul Klee and Edgar Varèse on the transposition of musical structures into formal constructions. Albert has also created environmental sculptures using plants to create architecture.
Early life and education Albert was born on July 25, 1942, in Loches, France, as the only child of Louis Georges Albert and Edith Albert (née Garand). His father was an officer in the French Navy and an engineer. Albert practiced painting and music beginning in childhood, and was also interested in carpentry, as his grandmother lived next to a carpentry workshop; when visiting her on vacation, Albert became interested in observing their work, particularly the technical drawings the carpenters used. This was later used as a direct inspiration for his trellis constructions, and his series .L’EMPREINTE #27 François Lamarre, Jean-Max Albert illusionniste éclectique, décembre 1994
Albert studied at the Ecole Régionale des Beaux-Arts d'Angers, then at the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Paris between 1958 and 1962. During that time, Albert was a trumpet player, joining Henri Texier's quintet and participating in the beginnings of the Free Jazz movement in Europe.Dictionnaire du jazz, Sous la direction de Philippe Carles, Jean-Louis Comolli et André Clergeat. Éditions Robert Laffont, coll. "Bouquins", 1994Musique Française
Career Both Albert and his second wife, Sara Holt, have collaborated on and carried out various public art projects and exhibitions,Françoise Very, What Jean-Max Albert's and Sara Holt's sculptures show us of architecture = Ce que les sculptures de Jean-Max Albert et Sara Holt donnent à voir de l'architectureIn Situ 32 | 2017 : Le collectif à l'œuvre. Collaborations entre architectes et plasticiens (XXe-XXIe siècles)Bruno Suner, Relier ciel et ville, Urbanisme n°219, 1987 becoming friends with artists such as Meret Oppenheim, Piotr Kowalski and Joan Mitchell.Patricia Albers, Joan Mitchell : Lady Painter, A life, Knof, 2011
In 1975, Albert founded the group show in François Horticultural Greenhouses, Magny-in-Vexin.Michel Cosnil-Lacoste, Cimaises en rase campagne, Le Monde, 7 July 1975 At the invitation of sculptor Mark di Suvero, he travelled to New York City, the first of many visits to the United States, where he collaborated later with the architect Wylde-Oubrerie on the Miller HouseMiller House Miller House, GA n°35, July 1992. in Lexington. He also travelled to Europe, North Africa, Middle East.Realization for the French Cultural Center in Damascus, Syria, 1986 In 1985, Albert joined the Ars Technica Association, connected to the Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie, uniting philosophers, artists, scientists such as Jean-Marc Levy-Leblond, Piotr Kowalski, Claude Faure, Piero Gilardi and Jean-Claude Mocik, reflecting on the relationship between art and new technologies. Tecnoscienze, Intuizione Artistica e Ambiente Artificiale - GAM - Torino ArsMeteo From 1978 to 1986, Albert made his living as a graphic designer for science and technology publications. By his own account, this experience influenced his attention to subject matter in art. With Jean-Claude Mocik, he co-authored the project Midi-Pile in 1994.
Style and method Albert works in many different disciplines, media, styles and techniques. He often relates music and visual art, referring to Edgar Varese, and has collaborated with different composers and musicians as György Ligeti, Steve Lacy, Barney Wilen and François Tusques.Jedediah Sklower, Free Jazz, la catastrophe féconde, L'Harmattan, Paris, 2006 A monumental structure like Iapetus set in Angoulême in 1985 refers to the structure of Thelonious Monk's "Misterioso",Michel Ragon, Jean-Max Albert «Iapetus», L’art abstrait vol.5, Éditions Maeght, Paris, 1989 and Ligeti Rouen 1994, to Ligeti's "static sonorous surfaces".Un entretien entre György Ligeti et Josef Häusler « d’Atmosphères à Lontano», La musique en jeu, Editions du Seuil, 1974
Painting Mental Image and RepresentationMental Image and Representation published in 2018, is a study of the relation subject matter/style. This essay is based on a work achieved by the Docteur Jean Philippe (1862-1931) l'image mentale, évolution et dissolution,L'image mentale, évolution et dissolution, Paris: Félix Alcan Editeur, 1903.https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k58069835/f85.item.texteImage and Alfred Korzybski's General semantics.
Treillis In 1973, a conversation that Albert had with the architect Louis Kahn brought a comparison between the relationship of paint and canvas and vegetation on trellis.Opus International, Jean-Louis Pradel, Les monuments de treillage de Jean-Max Albert, Opus n°65, 1978 Albert then visited the tradition of trellis-work,Hubert Beylier, Bénédicte Leclerc, Treillage de jardin du XIV au XX siècle, Éditions du patrimoine, Paris, 2000, 18th-century utopic architecture and created vegetal architecture in the field of Land art and Environmental Sculpture.Jean-Max Albert O=C=O, Franco Torriani, Dalla Land arte alla bioarte, Hopefulmonster editore Torino, 2007, It was comparable to the work of Gordon Matta-Clark, or Nils Udo, with whom he participated in the Wissenschaftszentrum exhibition in Bonn in 1979.Wolfgang Becker, Sculpture Nature, Centre d'Arts Plastiques Contemporain, Bordeaux, 1980
VicenzaOpus International, Dominique Richir, Tuteurs Fabuleux, Opus n°64, octobre 1976 in Hôtel de Sully, Paris, 1975 (in collaboration with Fougeras Lavergnolle) or the project O=C=O for the "Parco d' Arte Vivente" in Torino, 2007 are architectural and vegetal sculptures on trellis-work in the field of Site-specific art, Environmental sculpture and Generative art.Bruno Suner, L'art du passage à Saint Nazaire, Urbanisme n°214, 1986
Calmodulin Calmodulin is a project dedicated to the vegetation itself, in terms of biological activity. The utopian Calmoduline Monument is based on the property of a protein, calmodulin, to bond selectively to calcium. Exterior physical constraints (wind, rain, etc.) modify the electric potential of the cellular membranes of a plant and consequently the flux of calcium. However, the calcium controls the expression of the calmoduline gene. The plant can thus, when there is a stimulus, modify its typical growth pattern. The basic principle of this sculpture is that to the extent that they could be picked up and transported, these signals could be enlarged, translated into colors and shapes, and show the plant's decisions. This permanent show, installed in a public place, would suggest a level of fundamental biological activity.Intra-and Intercellular Communications in Plants, Millet & Greppin Editors, INRA, Paris, 1980, p.117 (in English)
Sculptures Bachelard (Observation Sculptures)
Albert's Sculptures Bachelard aims to concentrate the surrounding environment in the sculpture. When looking in the Observation Sculpture through its sights (an aperture or circles), the space beyond is (roughly) framed. Combining the different perspectives framed, the little sculpture, usually in bronze, takes shape after the space it is aiming at. An Observation Sculpture proposes a summary of this space concentrated, agglomerated and stuck together in a kind of core, like a geometric model of the site's character.Bruno Suner, Les sculptures de visées du Parc de La Villette, Urbanisme n°215, 1986
Anamorphosis Un carré pour un square, Cube fantôme and Reflet anamorphose,Matilde Marcolli Lumen Naturae The MIT Press Cambridge, Massachusetts, 2020, p.54,56 are three pieces according to anamorphosis principle as described by Matilde Marcolli : « If the vector space one starts with is the 3-dimensional space, whose vectors have 3-coordinates v = (x1, x2, x3), then, as long as v is nonzero and a real number λ is also nonzero, the vector v = (x1, x2, x3) and the vector λv = (λx1, λx2, λx3) point along the same straight line and we consider them as being the same point of our projective space. »Matilde Marcolli, The notion of Space in Mathematics through the lens of Modern Art, Century Books, Pasadena, July 2016
Un carré pour un square shows the perspective of a square from a specific vantage point. The design is formed by a set of lines of narrow plates of Carrara marble imbricated in the walls of the surrounding buildings and in the vestiges of a former construction site.Monique Faux, L'art renouvelle la ville, Editions Skira, Paris 1992
In another example, the specific vantage point is indicated by one of the Sculptures BachelardJean-Max Albert's observation sculptures Sarah Mc Fadden, The Bulletin 24, Bruxelles, June 16th 1994 set in Paris, Parc de la Villette. In this work, the anamorphosis appears as a reflection of a bronze constructionBruno Suner, Les sculptures de visées du Parc de la Villette, Urbanisme 215, 1986 This reflection discreetly shows the inclusion of a circle in a square in a triangle, in reference to the concept plan of the park by the architect Bernard Tschumi.Reflet Anamorphose allows, from the specific vantage point, to observe simultaneously the design and its anamorphosis.
Gallery
Books, poetry, essays
1975, Soulages, in Opus n°57. 1978, Tuteurs Fabuleux, Éditions Speed, Paris. FRBNF34609833 De l'architecture transparente, in Opus n°65 1981, Lithium Migrants, Éditions Cheval d’Attaque, Paris. 1982, De l'architecture transparente, Lotus international n°31. 1984, Les nouveaux voyages du capitaine Cook, Éditions ACAPA, Angoulême. 1991,Vuthemas, Ars technica n°4. 1993, Space in Profile,Musée d’Art Contemporain, Marseille, L'Espace de profil/ Space in Profile Frédéric Mialet, Exercice sur le vide, D'A n°45, mai 1994 (French and English), Les Éditions de La Villette, Paris. 1992, Mathesis singularis, Ars technica n°7. 1994, La caméra sans film,Derry O'Sullivan, Ceamara Jean-Max Albert, An Guth, Dublin, 2008, (in Gaelic)Derry O'Sullivan, Caemara/Ceamara, Estepa Editions, Paris 2010 Sens & Tonka Editeurs, Paris. ; Une obscurité infiniment lumineuse, Alliages n°19. 2002, Jean-Bernard Métais et Sir George H. Darwin, Temps imparti, Éditions Beaudoin Lebon, Paris. 2005, Le tour du blues en 80 mondes, Sens & Tonka Editeurs, Paris. 2009, Les Querpéens I, Emma Qun'q, Les Éditions du Quintelaud, Paris. 2012, Les Querpéens II, Ray Quernöck, Les Éditions du Quintelaud, Paris. 2018, Mental image and representation, (French and English), Translation by Helen Arnold, Éditions Mercier & associés, Paris. 2009, Thelonious Monk Architecte, L'art du jazz, Éditions Le Félin, Paris. 2018, Piotr Kowalski, A contemporary's Insights, Far-Sited : California International Sculpture Symposium 1965/2015, University Art Museum, California State University, Long Beach. 2020, Quand la Lune écrit, Alliages n°81.
Public works
Vicenza, Hotel de Sully, Paris 1977 Attique, Künstler-Garten, Wissenschaftszentrum, Bonn, Germany, 1979 Iapetus, Parc de l'école des beaux-arts, Angoulême, 1985, 45°39’15.246’’N0°8’54.834’’E Rayon, Centre Culturel Français, Damascus, Syria, 1986 Sculptures de visées, and Reflet anamorphose Parc de la Villette, Paris, 1986, 48°53’33.8’’N2°23’26’’E Cube fantôme, ZI de Goussainville, 1986 Autumn in Peking, South Pasadena, USA, 1987, 34°6’40’435’’N118°8’33.619’’W Vers l'étoile polaire, Parc des Maillettes, Melun Sénart, 1987 Un carré pour un square, Place Frehel, Paris, 1988 Une horloge végétale, Square Héloïse et Abelard, 24 rue Dunois, Paris, 1988, 48°49’52.745N2°22’13.12’’E Planches, Terrasse du Musée de la Toile de Jouy, à Jouy-en-Josas, 1990, 48°46’8.591’’N2°9’5.868’’E Ligeti, Rectorat de Rouen, Rouen, 1994, 49°26’35’’N1°5’4.6’’E Auriga, Rond-point Montaigne, Angers, 1995, 47°27’59’’N 0°31’30’’W Tombeau de Bartillat, Etrépilly, 1997, 49°2’18’’N 2°55’53.2’’E
Videos, choreographies