shell assemblage pasted on wood

Pascal-Désir Maisonneuve
French nationality
Born in Bordeaux in 1863
Dies in Bordeaux in April 1934

 
Pascal-Désir Maisonneuve is a mosaicist as is his father, but his secret passion is collecting. He is interested in arts of all sorts, from all times. Through his job, he restores Gallo-Roman mosaics. In 1928, he is nominated "Best Worker of France" for the portrait he made of Sadi Carnot. At the age of sixty-four, he decides to make heads out of shells, a sort of "gallery of illustrious people", fifteen of them, all made in one year. He calls them "Treacherous Rogues from Europe" and names a few of them: the Tartar, the Chinese, the Teuton, the Devil, and also Queen Victoria and William II.
 
Pascal-Désir Maisonneuve is a perfect example of the non-premeditated approach, characteristic of Art Brut. His masks emerge from playing with found objects, without any concern for the end result. It is the work of an ordinary man but a work full of talent. A spontaneous and poetic vision, which can, however, ridicule those in high positions. A way for Pascal-Désir Maisonneuve to tell us that there is no such thing as "father figure".
 
SEE ALSO: Publications de la Compagnie de l'Art Brut, fascicule 3, text of Michèle Edelmann, Paris, 1965.
 
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