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Joseph-Albert-Alfred Moindre, known
as Moindre "l'Egyptologue"
French
nationality
Born in Seine-Maritime in 1888
Dies in February 1965
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| Joseph-Albert-Alfred Moindre is a commercial real estate
broker in Paris. He gets married in 1911. He soon becomes interested in
metaphysics, and through his research gets to visit many churches. He is
initiated to spiritualism and develops a passion for ancient Egypt. He loves
reading books about this civilization and soon refers to himself as an Egyptologist. |
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| His personal life changes, he becomes despotic and
authoritarian. His wife and friends abandon him one after the other. He
finds himself alone. In 1942, at the age of fifty-two, he starts drawing
sights of Paris, then scenes inspired by his own metaphysical beliefs. He
brings together Christian, Jewish and Egyptian themes: temples covered with
hieroglyphic inscriptions, interspersed with representations of Moses and
Christ, pharaohs and mysterious figures with three heads. Labyrinth looking
temples with unusual perspectives, stairs leading nowhere, all are a testimony
of his free style which goes beyond the themes he represents. Moindre uses
history informally; his mythological figures seem to be there just for the
"show". In a way reminiscent of the Facteur Cheval's environment, Moindre's
architecture is a back up, a pretext or an alibi to explore dark and mysterious
alleys. |
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| At the age of sixty-eight, left with no money, Moindre
moves into a home for ex-service men. He becomes weak and can no longer
paint. He dies in a hospital in 1965. |
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| SEE ALSO: Publications de la Compagnie de
l'Art Brut, fascicule 4, Paris, 1965. |
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