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Augustin Lesage |
Augustin Lesage 1876-1954. Texts of Annick Notter and Didier Derœux, Michel Thévoz, Hubert Larcher, Christian Delacampagne, Marie-France Lecomte-Emond, Robert Amadou, Philippe Sers Editeur, Paris, 1988.
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| In 1912, while working in the mines, Augustin Lesage hears voices, telling him he will become a painter. In those days he knows nothing about the world of art. About nine or ten months later, during a seance of spiritualism, the spirits say to him again: "Have no fear, follow our advice. Yes, one day you will become a painter and your works will serve Science. We will guide your hand." Shortly thereafter, Lesage begins painting an eighty square foot canvas, on which he spends all his spare time. It will take him a year to finish this painting. It is an ornamental work, filled with tiny decorative elements, which give it the feeling of fabric. It is not really without figuration (there are many architectural and anthropomorphic figures), but, unbeknownst to the author himself, it does explore abstraction at a time when it has not yet become the path of choice for professional artists. | ||
| Lesage is regularly involved in his seances with the spirits. He believes that his works are dictated by spirits from beyond, particularly those of his younger sister Marie, Leonardo da Vinci and Marius de Tyane, a distortion of Apollonios de Tyane. Marius could be the counterpart of his sister Marie, who died at the age of three. Lesage will only accept to sign his paintings at a later date. | ||
| After 1923, he no longer works in the mines. He meets the Egyptologist Moret and becomes interested in Egyptian drawings, proclaiming himself the reincarnation of an artist from the times of the Pharaohs. He paints hundreds of works charged with religious symbols, which look Buddhist, Egyptian, Christian, Hindu, Indo-Chinese, Tibetan or Persian. Lesage's paintings startle us; they captivate us, as if putting us under a spell, probably due to the contrast between the rigidity of their symmetry coupled with the randomness of shapes that blend into each other. "I never know what the painting is going to be about, before I paint it. I have never had a vision of the entire painting at any time during its execution. A painting is created step by step, with no preconceived idea. My guides have told me: "Do no try to understand what you are doing." I let their impulsions take me over. I draw the figures they make me draw. I pick the colors they make me pick and mix colors without knowing what I will end up with. I pick up my brushes at random. Even my eyes go their way, independently of me. I know it seems unbelievable, but this is the way it happens, I let myself guide like a child." | ||
| One should take these words seriously. Lesage exhibits and sells his paintings; he meets artists and writers, he is recognized by the learned people and has an ambiguous relationship with them. We could think that spiritualism has become for this miner an alibi, a passport of entry into the literary and artistic world. Otherwise, it is unlikely that he would have been accepted without mockery and criticism. This "trick" does have its limits, though. Lesage's work, highly creative until the 30s, tends to become weaker and repetitive. | ||
| SEE ALSO: Publications de la Compagnie de
l'Art Brut, fascicule 3, Paris, 1965. Augustin Lesage 1876-1954. Texts of Annick Notter and Didier Derœux, Michel Thévoz, Hubert Larcher, Christian Delacampagne, Marie-France Lecomte-Emond, Robert Amadou, Philippe Sers Editeur, Paris, 1988. |
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