Jean Faucheur

Born in 1956 in Paris. Lives and works in Paris.

If he is considered to be a key figure in urban art, Jean Faucheur owns it primarily to his pioneering genius, to his taste for breaking norms and to his generous sense of sharing. Endowed with a classic education, he had the intuition that it was artistically necessary to knock down museum walls and give them the sky as a roof. In 1983, Artois road, he made use of billboards to display his works by sticking big paper paintings on top of them, in order to divert the attention of amazed passers-by. He then began to spread his collages around Paris, from nightclubs to metro stations, from walls to shops. He founded “Les Frères Ripoulin” with the help of artists with whom he generously shared his technique. This was followed by an invitation to go to New York from the Tony Shafrazy Gallery, which houses the famous artists Keith Haring, Futura 2000 and Basquiat, who asked him to spread his works around The Big Apple.

Then, for 15 years, this innovator devoted his time to sculptures, paintings and photography. It was not until 2002 that he went back to the graffiti scene after a meeting with Thom Thom, an artist known for his use of Stanley knives. From then on, paintings of more than 150 artists started invading a large number of billboards. His crowning achievement: the M.U.R association. Later, Faucheur revisited Cubism and realised a series of works in the style of Braque and Picasso, a puzzling change of direction which the artist was not afraid to take in order to open new ways of thinking to young talents.

Jean Faucheur explores all techniques, all types of stands and spaces, mixes and manipulates materials (metal, drawing, photographs) to produce works of all shapes and sizes. This explorer of the arts remains a paradoxical figure embodying the link between the pioneers and the emerging stars in urban art.

STUDIES :
Bachelor of the National School of Decorative Arts of Paris (1979).