"Unclassifiable" as criticism wants it but mostly the unique figuration of a trajectory that engulfs everything (and little things ...) On his trajectory, Jean-Jacques Surian carries within himself a Rabelaisian dimension ... both voracious and jubilant while deeply intimate and fraternal. Code breaker and creator of confusion, he also brings back to memory the original meaning of the eighth century iconoclast who would destroy sacred images because they represented too well (or too poorly?) the established order. This rich interview, given to Patricia Chaveau, Communications Director at Pébéo, is representative of his work... So "Drink up! To prevent thirst from showing up ", as would say Gargantua!

Jean-Jacques Surian: I am a child of war! In the 50’s, the war was present in every conversation. Indochina, Algeria ... I bathed in an atmosphere where everything was not as "wonderful" as what they wanted us to believe. When I joined the Army, my painting was inspired by my life: the events of ‘68 which were showed repeatedly on television, the power relationships between students and police, pavement and stolen cars... This «environment» deeply touched me at the time. It explains all these series of paintings in which uniforms and civilians are confronted, often separated by prohibitive panels. This idea of ​​the forbidden, omnipresent at the time, made a strong impression on me.

Jean-Jacques Surian: In 1970, I changed. I did the opposite than in my previous period by painting canvasses inspired by the musicals, movie stars and American movies of the 50’s. No longer in relation to the present, but rather with my imaginary, with photography and cinema which had always nourished me (and still does!). The story of Van Gogh came to me at the end of this "American cinema" period, after seeing the great Vincente Minnelli film "The passionate life of Van Gogh" (released in1956). This myth of the cursed artist - You must suffer to be famous – captured my interest. After having read the letters of Van Gogh to his brother, Theo, I invented a "new" life for Van Gogh... like a movie that would have gone differently. The idea was that, were he not dead, had he not committed suicide, maybe three months later he would have become a big star... Finally, a story that can either end in drama or ... in success! I therefore worked on, in 1975, a Van Gogh life opposite to the one he had lived. For example, I painted Van Gogh receiving the Legion of Honour from the hands of his Minister of Culture. I took it out of context and projected into the reality of back then... Van Gogh, surrounded by magnificent creatures, a professor of Fine Arts, travelling to the United States ... This series of paintings, completely utopian and mythical, stirred my passions! I invented for him a life of success to "break" his image of the cursed artist who is, in my opinion, an absurdity. We may one day be cursed and the next day, adored.

Jean-Jacques Surian: No, there is no continuity. Bruno Ely, director of the Musée Granet in Aix-en-Provence is at the origin of this idea. While preparing his "Year Cézanne", he asked me to think (being aware, of course, of my work surrounding Van Gogh) of an exhibition about the master. I thought about it 2 to 3 days and realized that if Cézanne was less cursed than Van Gogh, he also had no success in his lifetime. After reading texts from other artists, Matisse’s text, who read "Cézanne, a sort of god of painting", got me hooked. From the moment I took knowledge of this quote, I told Bruno Ely that I was willing.

Jean-Jacques Surian: It was the idea of the holy man protected by angels that guided me. I was remaining in the imaginary! Cézanne had revelations ... almost mystical: visions of ancient paintings. Cézanne loved classical painting, the Renaissance ... I therefore created "Renaissance" paintings, the driving title being "the edifying life of Cézanne". With such use of the word "edifying", inspired from the religious register (as if it were the edifying life of Saint Teresa), I created the mythical side of the man, I play the game of the imaginary. It is thoughts that I put in images, a parallel story. For this exhibition, we published, with my wife Anne Marie, a book: "Gloria in excelsis Cézanne", designed as a bible. Enriched with embroidered designs, it invents the life of Cézanne, that of a saint. Very young, he receives the revelation of painting by his mother ... His school drawings are amazing, he is magnificent, and he is very talented... None of it is true! I reinvented his life, a holy and beautiful story, as can be read in religious books. At the end of the book, he climbs to heaven, protected by angels. He is "sitting" between Picasso and Matisse. The piece that became the highlight at the exhibit was the «Grand reliquaire (grand reliquary) » of imaginary sacred objects. It is as absurd… as it is a fact!

Jean-Jacques Surian: My story was born with "narrative figuration", an exhibition I had seen in Paris in 1966. But I never wanted to be part of a current. I have always kept away. I am more of a loner. My teachers are therefore Narrative Figuration but also German expressionism and abstraction because my way of composing the painting is very abstract. But what I claim overall is to have used photography and cinema in my art. As early as 1967, I was using these Medias to work with paint. In the region, I was the only one. Now there are thousands of artists worldwide who use them! Today, I am still not part of any movement, I am abstract, I am figurative... I am a lyrical figuration: An original artist, unclassifiable, and very proud of it. I have my own subjects and my own imaginary, Cézanne, Van Gogh... few artists have tackled such references.Some have used Cézanne to inspire their own paintings but none have worked as I have on an imaginary life of the artist.

Jean-Jacques Surian: It's simple! I constantly cultivate the desire to create, I am always on the go, in an image, in a movie... that triggers something. In recent years I have also turned to reading, including Dante’s Divine Comedy, and to travelling (when I'm more a homebody!). For example, a recent month stay in China prompted in me a series of works. I am currently working on the theme of self-portraits, self portraits of myself, child and adolescent. I gather memories that get intertwined.

Jean-Jacques Surian: It is a question of age! I could not do it at 20 years old... It was too present... Now, I have memories! I work mostly the periods ranging between the ages of 10 to 15, and 15 to 17, when I started the Beaux Arts.I transpose in these paintings current stories. For example, my little nieces (who are the daughters of my niece), to talk about my niece. I skip one generation or two to tell of moments lived with them at that time. I mix a little of both personal and current stories. It is like an embroidery of time. Other examples: in one of my paintings, there is a wedding scene, which could be mine... But the truth is that it is Brigitte Bardot’s because it was the big thing at the time. These are games of shortcuts. Like the Virgin Mary that can be seen in my painting and that brings me back to my first communion.

Jean-Jacques Surian: To show that there still is time ... When parts or elements that are less finished than others are present in the painting, it supposes that there changes are possible. A painting must be alive. A completed painting is not necessarily finished… If everything is perfect and complete, the painting is inert... It no longer breathes. Therefore charcoal, acrylic and oil, my 3 current techniques, can be found. I have somewhat put aside pastels and varnishes. But in the end, pastel, acrylic, watercolor or gouache are pigments. Mediums that render different results - therefore living, and images that are not alike, neither in terms of figuration nor in terms of technical finish. We find ourselves in a work that is in movement, that is not inert.

Jean-Jacques Surian: I enjoy organizing colors. This pleasure is part of my nature and I hope to convey it to the public. It must be visible. After, the painting is an adventure, a necessity which is at the end of this adventure. I do not apply recipes as in decorative arts - advertising, for example – where an exposed problem is solved by the image. An artist must flee decorative arts and apply, on the contrary, a thought that is personal to him. It is the interaction between the background and the hand that must work together. The relation between the gesture and the color is visceral. A true romantic encounter... That is the reason why I would never paint a picture that would be called "Self Portrait". It will always be a series of self portraits. A series runs throughout all discoveries and must stop before desires dry up. It is a love relationship between the painting and me. Then, at a certain point, a change occurs in me...

"Les fragments amoureux" that I have exposed in Paris: a series which I have preciously preserved. It dates from 3 or 4 years back. It was painted based on Roland Barthes' book «A Lover’s Discourse: Fragments». A contemporary philosopher, Barthes analyzes men and women’s experience of love with fragments taken from literature; an analysis dealing with the experience of love with references to abandonment, separation, joy, anticipation, tears... of joy or pain; waiting in a bar: someone waiting and someone who does not show up; the memory of something that has happened and that will not happen again. For my part, I am not trying to illustrate the book but I retain from it some parts such as titles. For example, «Show me whom to desire» is the title of a fragment but also in itself a fragment of the text. Therefore I take fragments of fragments, I keep the dazzlement, I sacrifice the image to the imaginary surrounding these titles, and I add elements that are current or passages that occur in known places: la Canebière, the Orsay Museum, elements that are related to my visits in these places. With the pictures I have taken, I create a story around these places with multiple techniques such as watercolor, gouache, collage or India ink. It is a somewhat like a puzzle, the elements are separated on paper and it is up to the viewer to see and make his own story. As it pleases him... he keeps coming back!

1967/ Paris, France, Maison des Beaux-Arts, Selected for the Young Painter prize

1980-81/ Marseille, France, « 10 ans de création », Cantini Museum

1989/ Jouy en Josas, France, Fondation Cartier, « Couleur Sud »

1995/ Rotterdam, Pays-Bas, Ram-Galerie et Alliance Française

1996/ Paris, France, Salon de Montrouge (Prix)

1998/Céret, France, Musée d’Art Contemporain ; Donation J.P Ali

2000/ Canton, Chine, Musée d’histoire « Monte Christo et le Château d’If »

2001/ Kagawa, Japon, Salon Franco /Japonais, Marugamé et Musée de Shionoé

2008/ Shanghaï, Chine, galerie New B, Cheng Dù « 12 Artistes de Marseille »

2010 / La Roque d’Anthéron, France, Abbaye de Silvacane, « De l’écriture au geste en Méditerranée ».

1975/ 88/ 91/ Marseille, Galerie Athanor,

1987/ Paris, Galerie Eric Fabre, et Amsterdam « Kunstrai 87 »

1995/ Paris, Ecole Nationale supérieure des beaux-Arts

1996/ Aix-en-Provence, Galerie Espace 13 (galerie du conseil général)

2000/ Arles, Fondation Vincent Van Gogh

2004/ Aix-en-Provence, Musée des Tapisseries, « La Divine Comédie »

2006/ Aix-en-Provence, Musée des Tapisseries « Cézanne une Relecture »

2010 / Avignon, Cloître St Louis, invité d’honneur dans le cadre du :« parcours de l’art »

2011 / Catalogue, Galerie Théo de Seine, Paris, « Fragments Amoureux »

2006 / Catalogue,Musée des Tapisseries, Aix-en-Provence, «Cézanne une relecture»

2004 / Catalogue, Musée des Tapisseries, Aix-en-Provence, « La divine comédie »

2002 / Catalogue, Atelier Thérèse Neveu, Aubagne, céramiques : « Inferno »

2001 / Livre, « Abécédaire », édition Images en Manœuvres.

2000 / Catalogue, Fondation Vincent Van Gogh, Arles , « Le retour de Van Gogh »

1999 / « Peintures et Sculptures à Marseille « Alain Paire » édit. Jeanne Laffi

1996 / Catalogue, Galerie du Conseil Général, "Faits divers"

1993 / Livre, « Monographie » édition Athanor / Muntaner

1991 / Carnets de l’Artothèque Antonin Artaud, N° 3

1990 / « Marseille et les Peintres » Marielle Latour et Jean Boissieu, édit. Jeanne Laffitte.

1969/ Avignon, Musée Calvet

1988-93/ Marseille, Fond communaL

1995 / Marseille, F.R.A.C, Provence-Alpes-Côte- d’Azur

1998 / Céret, Musée d’Art moderne,(donation J.P Alis)

2006 / Musée des Tapisseries, Aix-en-Provence

2010 / Pavillon de Vendôme, Aix-en-Provence

2011-12/ Céret , Musée d’Art moderne : 4 oeuvres de grand format (donation J-J Surian)

Fondation Regards de Provence,Marseille

Fondation Vincent Van Gogh, Arles

Collection Société Pébéo, Gémenos

Collection « Vacances Bleues » Marseille