Jacques BraunsteinThe Artist Workshop
According to my art-based practices, painting or volume, the studio is the essential place of the physical implementation of the artworks.
The initial concept and processes are elaborated beforehand during meditations, cognitive ambulations over aimed readings nourishing my peripheral knowledge to my obsessional thought orientated toward the consequences of THE FINAL SOLUTION organized by the Nazis during world war 2.
Years 1950-1955
Argenteuil
My first studio, during the time I was a student and five years after that, was a simple folding easel that I would open out at the countryside. I was attracted by the Expressionism, the landscape, mainly. I worked on portraits indoors, the canvas laid down on my knees and leaned against a table. The pictorial movement called Miserabilism, whose originator was, to me, the painter Francis Gruber, encouraged me to observe our most humble environment and to express it with conviction.
Years 1955-1968
Marly le Roi
My second studio, a 10m2 room, lit with view of the fields, a vast palette of white marble. It was a period where after having seen a spectacular and enlightening exhibition of Jean Dubuffet about Asphalt and other materials, often minerals, I found a representation form that spoke to me. I painted on horizontally placed frames on trestles. The format that suited me the best was 1mx1m.
Years 1970-1978
Nantes
My third studio, a spacious attic well lit and ventilated above my apartment in a 17th century Hotel. I began doing, after years of hesitation, an artistic work testimony of the nazis persecutions and simultaneously tribute to my parents who were their victims. I explain later the technics I had to create, almost insane considering their time and energy requirement and psychologic investments. With large frames placed on the floor, I work especially on my knees or squatting.
Years 1979-1989
Nancy
My fourth studio; the vastest, the most comfortable, 40m2, on the third floor of a building listed as Ecole de Nancy. It’s where I would create bigger sized art works. My canvas would be processed more often than not as bas-reliefs (low-relief) by bringing additional components tied by bonding or tying…
Years 1990-1995
While residing definitively in the Nievre department
A generous friend put at my disposal my 5th studio situated in the Burgundy countryside, 20km from my house. Good light, vue of a pond, 10m2 alas without water nor electricity limiting my working time to the summer months.
1995 to 2016
Time period to which I preferred to dedicate my activities to writing
My sixth and final studio was a 6m2 small room without water nor heating system. The only benefit being its proximity to my house.