Jean-Daniel Allanche, Apartement décoré / Decorated apartment

living room

pictures by Pierre Schwartz courtesy of Hervé Perdriolle

The rue des Ciseaux in Paris is a short, small street that on one side ends at the Boulevard Saint-Germain, just where the Church of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, which dates from the 6th century,  faces the café Les Deux Magots, a spot ever with the reputation of being the meeting place of Paris' literary and intellectual elite.

Only recently (autumn 2015) it has become known that in this street, right in the centre of Paris, an apartment was transformed into an art environment ¹.

Life and works 

Jean-Daniel Allanche (1940-2015) was born in Tunisia and moved to France, where he did his studies. He got married in 1962, but the relationship ended in 1968.

Professor of physics at the Faculty of Sciences Paris 7, in 1975 he bought the apartment in the rue des Ciseaux.

From the late 1970s on, bit by bit, he has decorated the apartment, working over and over again to accomplish it, but although this activity must have played an important role in his life, he was not very talkative about it.

In the course of the years Allanche has actually painted all available surfaces of the apartment, not just the walls, but also the ceilings, the floors, cabinet doors and step treads. Moreover he also displayed the many African and Indian sculptures he had collected when he was teaching as a professor in Congo and Burkina Fasso (1989-1995).

The multicolored paintings have whimsical motives, sometimes formed by a large number of dots or small circles, combined with vaguely represented people and animals. In some places texts are arranged and on one of the doors his surname appears.

Considering the entire set of paintings one gets the impression that they primarily have a decorative nature (such as Asalanche, London), and are not intended to give expression to personal experiences (such as Bonaria Manca, Italy) or particular events or circumstances (such as Polina Rayko, Ukraine) and Wiersma, Netherlands), this irrespective of the occasionally added texts.

Such a view is supported by a remark in one of Allanche's notebooks, where he says that he has managed to show the intimate relationship between musical harmony and colors.

To get an impression of Allanche's texts on the walls, here is how the one on the the wall pictured above reads:

Je me dresse face à la mort

moi sujet singulier

SOUS TON REGARD

tout homme doit être vu

pour lui donner son âme vivante

(I stand up to death/me singular subject/in your view/every man must be seen/
to give him his living soul)

kitchen

Allanche's legacy also includes a number of gouaches and oil paintings in the same style as the wall paintings. They mainly date from the late 1970s and maybe were made as designs for (parts of) his wall paintings ². 

And then he left a large number of notebooks. which include personal remarks and aphorisms, but also hundreds of pages with sequences of numbers, which has to do with a passion for gambling and his endeavor (he was a professor of physics) to model disorder.

bedroom

Allanche died in hospital in August 2015 from an incurable disease. 

It wasn't realistic to assume that Allanche's small and indoor situated apartment could be saved as kind of a museum for the general public, so it has kept it's function as a private apartment. Removable parts of this art environment have been stored. In the future they might become part of the collection of a French museum.

Documentation

* The physics of disorder. Brochure by Hervé Perdriolle, Paris (Galerie Hervé Perdriolle), 2015. ill.
* Emptying the flat new material became available which late 2016 has been included in a new brochure L'Atelier moléculaire de Saint-Germain-des-Prés (The molecular studio of Saint Germain des Prés). Paris (Galerie Hervé Perdriolle), 2015, ill
 *Article on ABCD website, especially about Allanche's notes about combinations of numbers

Notes
¹  To my knowledge the only available source about Allanche's art environment as such is the brochure by Hervé Perdriolle, so I like to acknowledge that the data in this post are derived from this brochure (interpretations are my responsibility)
 ²  Galerie Hervé Perdriolle has presented a number of Allanche's loose-leaf works on the Outsider Art Fair in New York in January 2016. Website Artspace (January 22, 2016) wrote about Allanche in an article reviewing the art fair

first published December 2015, revised January 2016

Jean-Daniel Allanche
Apartement décoré
(formerly) Rue des Ciseaux
Ile de France, Paris VI, France
site doesn't exist anymore

Ludovic & René Montégudet, l'Étang fleurie / the flowery pond

l'Étang fleurie on an old postcard

This entry is about father and son Montégudet from the community of Lépinas in France. who in succession made an art environment near a pond owned by the family.

Ludovic Montégudet

Montégudet Sr (1903-1981) was an agrarian living in Lépinas, who also was the mayor of the community from 1947 until 1953.

In 1967, retired, he wanted to do something for the inhabitants of Lépinas and he got the idea to do this by transforming the banks of a pond near where he lived, into a walking area, made attractive by nice stagings.

As the postcard above shows, Montégudet made a variety of creations. Part of this art environment consisted of built structures such as a round table, a mill and a belfry with an horloge parlante (a talking clock).

this picture and the next one cut outs from an old postcard

And there was a scene with a small boat with five standing persons who probably represent Indians

However, the major part of the staging consisted of all kinds of wooden sculptures, such as an Adam and Eve, various animals such as a raven, a fox, a lion, a rat, a butterfly, a grasshopper, which depicted in various combinations the in France well known fables of Lafontaine.

The Monster of Loch Ness was also present, as well as a representation of the mysterious warlord Roland à Roncevaux from Charlemagne's time.

The inhabitants of Lépinas welcomed the site and made good use of it, for example for the staging of wedding pictures and to have a lunch or make their outing on Sunday afternoon. Visitors could consume something at a buffet.

this picture and the next ones (summer 2015) 

courtesy of Julia Sisi/Dan Casado

Montégudet, who had no education in making sculptures at all, mainly used wood he collected in the forest. The rather perishable creations had to be maintained regularly and thereby his son René lent a helping hand.

Montégudet's art environment was presented at the large exposition in 1978 in Paris Les singuliers de l'art: des inspirés aux habitants-paysagistes.  

After Montégudet Sr died in 1981, René Montégudet and his wife decided to store the sculptures in a separate shed near the family farm. It became a well-ordered private museum, not open to the public, a safe place for the fragile sculptures, included (four of the five) Indians, who watch the collection from the attic.

Except for some remnants, the site gradually disappeared and after some time the Étang fleurie was history. The area near the pond is private property and it can't be entered any more.. 

René Montégudet

This situation lasted until around 1995. Then René Montégudet, who was in his fifties, began creating a new art environment, making rather realistic sculptures from concrete, mainly depicting animals. He displayed these creations on a rocky and hilly garden located along a small road opposite the family home.

Although he had helped his father in repainting the wooden sculptures and also had contributed some items to the original art environment, such as a wooden creation that welcomed visitors, all his life he was not really a man of hammer and chisel. 

So he had to recognize that something had happened to him and that he had become a self taught artist. His robust creations testify to a confident approach of and a familiarity with the material he used.

Montégudet Jr made the sculptures in his workshop, and then transported them with the help of friends to their spot on the rocky setting.



Since the internet hardly has pictures of René Montégudet's creations, and this art environment in my opinion deserves the attention of those who are interested in this subsection of the artworld, this post, thanks to Julia Sisi and Dan Casado, has more pictures than usual.

Documentation

* La dynastie des Montégudet, inspirés de père en fils, published august 2009 by Bruno Montpied on his weblog Le Poignard Subtil, part 1 and part 2

* Above articles, supplemented with an introduction to an exposition of Ludovic Montégudet's creations, in: Bruno Montpied, Éloge des jardins anarchiques, Montreuil-sur-Bois (Ed l'Insomniaque), 2011, p 109-116

Ludovic Montégudet

l'Étang fleurie

not extant anymore, sculptures in private keeping

René Montégudet

Sculpture garden

can be seen from the road, people are welcome to make pictures

Le Terrade

23150 Lépinas, dept Creuze, region Nouvelle Aquitaine, France

Philippe Hermez, Monde fantastique / Fantastic world

pictures and videos by Philippe Hermez

It's an ordinary house in an ordinary street in the community of Meurchin in northern France, but once inside and in the backyard as if by magic one enters a fantastic world.

Welcome in Philippe Hermez' monde fantastique.

Life and works

Born in 1964, Hermez at a young age already was fascinated by transforming things, for example transforming a piece of wood into a giant clothespin.

He became a plumber and carpenter and currently he is working for EDF, the French electricity company. His fascination with transforming things has persisted, but -hopefully- is restricted to his spare time.

In 2001 he adressed this fascination in a large scale way when he began transforming the backyard of his house into a fantasy garden, which ultimately would become an art environment.

First he made kind of dragon which could spit fire.

Then he constructed an open kiosk populated with two plastic skeletons and a witch.

Already in these first creations the specific characteristics of this art environment are discernible, namely that these creations can make movements or otherwise may come in motion and also that they mostly are somewhat ghostly and/or fantastic.

The fantastic aspect does not occur in the next projects Hermez took up, a very large cascade along one of the walls of the garden (as in below picture) and a bassin, but there sure is movement, since the waterfall splashes water and the bassin has a rotating paddle wheel.

However, the fantastic aspect returns when Hermez subsequently from tree stumps he gathered in a forest, crafted a tree with illuminated eyes and a mouth that makes speech movements and produces sounds.

One would think of Tolkien's Ents, but Hermez was especially under the spell of Harry Potter.

In 2011 he enriched the garden with a self-constructed cabin, located  along the Allée Harry Potter (Harry Potter Alley).

this picture and the next one: 
stills from Hermez' video

This cabin nowadays has a large collection of all kinds of creations that can be associated with Harry Potter's world, such as a large owl, a ghostly apparition floating through the room and a self-writing goose quill.

Hermez has also made tabletop miniature scenes, such as one that represents an orchestra in evening dress that can come alive, and another one that shows skaters doing figures on an ice rink. 

These creations, together with other well-dressed, movable characters, are located in the house, which in this way also has a number of fantastic stagings.

All together, a fantastic world.....

Documentation

*  Philippe Hermez' personal website

* "Le monde fantastique de H.P. par Philippe Hermez", in: D'Étonnants Jardins en Nord-Pas de Calais. Inventaire général du patrimoine culturel (Images du Patrimoine, 293), Le Service du Patrimoine Culturel de la région Nord-Pas de Calais,  Lyon (Ed. Lieux-Dits), 2015,  82-83.

* The site is listed in Inventaire générale du patrimoine culturel, Hauts-de-France (dossier realized in 2011)

Videos

* Video made by Philippe Hermez, Rêves et réalité (YouTube, 8'26", November 2013) showing the scenes in the Harry Potter cabin

* Another video by Hermez (YouTube, 2'02", July 2016) shows the various creations in the garden

first published December 2015, last revised February 2021

Philippe Hermez

9 rue Henri Barbusse

Meurchin, dept Pas de Calais, region Hauts-de-France, France

visits only on appointment

D' Étonnants jardins en Nord-Pas De Calais / Amazing gardens in Nord-Pas de Calais

The Service du Patrimoine culturel de la région Nord-Pas de Calais (Department of cultural heritage Nord-Pas de Calais) in November 2015 has published a book which presents the results of a research project designed to identify and describe art environments in the area.

For a long time this area has been dominated by the mining industry and some fifteen of the twenty creators of art environments presented in the book, were employed by a mining company.

Among the creators of art environments portrayed in the book are those who are already known in the field, such as Charles Pecqueur (1908-1991) from Ruitz, who inter alia decorated a wall in his backyard with the story of Snow White, a site currently still extant, but in decay, the frescoes gradually fading away.

In addition to the presentation in the inventory section of the book, the introductory section has a separate essay about habitants-paysagistes and about Pecqueur written by Bernard Lassus, author of Jardins imaginaires Les habitants-paysagistes (1977).

picture (2013) courtesy of Rita and Pieter van den Boogaart

Also somewhat known is René Pecqueur (1933-2003) who lived in Louches and who embellished the outdoor space of his house with tree-like structures with brightly colored scenes, a site that was demolished after he died,

This self-taught artist also has a separate essay in the introductory part of the book, contributed by Michel Cabal.

picture courtesy of Marguerite Tartart

The sculpture garden of Léon Evangelaire (b 1925) from Pont-à-Vendin, which is portrayed on the cover of the book, is also known in the field of art environments. It is kind of a small zoo featuring Tarzan and Jane. 

 

picture courtesy of Thierry Bariolle

Another well known site presented in this book is the one by Rémy Callot (1926-2001), who created mosaics on the inside of the fences surrounding his home in Carvin, creations that were discovered only when his house for traffic reasons had to be demolished in 2006, which however partly was stopped in time.

In the introductory section of the book, the story of the discovery is related by Tiphaine Kempka.

picture courtesy of Sophie Lepetit

Two more art environments are presented in this book which are familiar to those interested in the field. First the castlelike house realized in Berck-sur-Mer by Joseph Meyer (1914-?), currently still existing.

picture courtesy of Rita and Pieter van den Boogaart

And finally, the Ferme aux avions by Arthur Vanabelle (1922-2014), a site much discussed recently, which after the death of its creator was sold to a private party, whereby it remains to be seen what happens with the various decorative constructions.

picture courtesy A van der Weerd

But then, the inventory section of the book has some twelve art environments made by people whose names are rather unknown in today's field of art environments, some because they wish to remain anonymous, while others might have been mentioned in old publications but are passed by in today's digital forms of publicity.

Sites already reviewed in this weblog when this article was fist published (2015)  are: Jean Cathelain (1932-2011) with his -currently no more existing- small sculpture garden in Billy-Montigny, Philippe Hermez (b. 1964) with his monde fantastique in Meurchin and Jean Poteau (1947-2010) with his -now demolished- havre du pêcheur in Rouvroy. 

Sites added to this blog in later years are: Alain Lefranc (1951-2022) who decorated his garden, which became overgrown after he died, Alfred Flament (born 1947) who decorated his currently stll existing house and garden, Concetta and Michele Sassano (both born in the mid 1930s) who during some fifty years decorated their house and garden, a site that currently doesn't exist anymore and Henri Lhotellery (born 1931) whose in 2023 still existing garden has a mixture of technical and artistic creations.

In addition to the above already mentioned essays in the first part of the book, the introductory section also has contributions that deal with general aspects of art environments, such as the general review of art environments in France by Savine Faupin and Christophe Boulanger (Lille Art Museum), an article by Laure Chavanne about the preservation of Fernand Chatelain's  and Jean Linard's art environments, a description of the design of the research project by Nathalie van Bost and an analysis of the function of the garden in the collective housing projects (cités minières) in the mining area by Marie Patou and Nicolas Selvan.

This is an interesting and informative publication. For all I know it is the first time that a number of art environments is presented in the context of the social and cultural characteristics of a particular region. And, especially now that the mining area in northern France in 2012 was added to UNESCO's world heritage list, it is an excellent initiative to highlight the cultural contribution made by self-taught artists, and capture in pictures and texts their vulnerable creations that seldom can withstand the test of time

Le Service du Patrimoine Culturel de la région Nord-Pas de Calais, D'Étonnants Jardins en Nord-Pas de Calais. Inventaire général du patrimoine culturel (Images du Patrimoine, 293). Lyon (Ed. Lieux-Dits), 2015. ill. -144 p

first published December 2015, updated September 2023

Václav Levý, Čertovy Hlavy a další skalní plastiky / Devil's Head and other rock sculptures

 this picture and the next four 
licensed under creative commons (Petr 1868)

A footpath of some 12 kilometers along rock-cut sculptures, made some 175 years ago, has become an attractive touristic route in the Czech Republic. In the field of art environments in Europe such rock sculptures are rather unique.

Life and works 

Václav Levý (1820-1870), who made these sculptures, was born in  Nebřežinách as a son of a shoemaker. His parents wished he would become a cabinetmaker and carpenter, but the local clergyman thought the young man would benefit more from getting an education in a monastery, probably also because at age ten he already made wooden crucifixes and carvings of the Holy Virgin.

So Levý lived in some monasteries, but when in his early twenties by chance he met a patron of art and owner of a castle in Libechov, a small town some 50 kilometer north of Prague, he went to work in the kitchen of this castle.

Although Levý at young age already was engaged in making wood carvings,  he had no artistic education at all, so it was rather an adventure when he tried his hand in creating sculptures in the sandstone rocks around Libechov.

In 1841, when he was in his early twenties, he made his first sculpture in the rocks just above the small community of Želízy, not far from Libechow. It became a huge, some nine meters high ensemble of two heads with a rather fierce expression, denoted as the Devil's Head.

Currently still extant, this art environment has become a renowned part of the Czech Republic's cultural heritage.

Of the various creations Levý made in the rocky area between Želízy and Libechov the Devil's Head is the best known , but following the footpath one also comes along Klácelka, an equally interesting ensemble with a variety of creations.

Klácelka

This site has a decorated cave with sculptures of dwarfs and haut-reliefs with representations of Reynard the Fox.

scene with dwarfs inside the cave

At the outside of the cave there are statues of legendary Czech persons (such as Jan Zizka and the sleeping Blanik knights, which however were made by Levý in the 1850s, after his study in Germany).

Other sculpted items on other locations along the trail include a spot with an ensemble consisting of a number of heads and a woman playing a harp. Another spot has an enormous snake in haut-relief.

Levý made these sculptures and scenes in addition to his daily activities in the kitchen of the castle. 

The owner of the castle and patron of art, Antonín Veith, recognized the artistic skills of his employee and offered him a further study at his costs. So in 1845 Levý left for Munich in Germany where he studied with Ludwig Schwanthaler (1802-1848), a well-known classicist southern German sculptor.

In 1848 Schwanthaler died and Levý returned to Libechov.

In 1850 he added new elements to the Klácelka scene and later on he was active in restoring the Zákupy castle. However, when in 1853 his patron Veitha died, he left in 1854 for Rome, where he stayed for twelve years and mainly created classical religious sculptures, which earned him much fame.

After Rome, Levý stayed for a short period in Vienna, to return in 1867 to Prague, where he died in 1870 as a respected artist.

Rock sculptures in the field of art environments

In the field of art environments in Europe rock sculptures are a rather unique phenomenon. France has Abbé Fouré's sculpted rocks, in Rothéneuf along the Breton coast and la Belle Roche, made in the 1790s by Dominique Plancolaine (1745-1804).

The Czech republic, apart from Levý's creation, has two other ensembles of sculpted rocks, the one made by Vojtech Kopic, located in Kacanovy and the ensemble of Jan Hus and companions made by Stanislav Rolinek in the rocks around Hudka.

Not protected from the weather and human activities such as climbing and scratching, these ensembles get damaged in the course of time, and somehow it is a miracle these sculptures are still extant after so many years. In general authorities take no measures to protect these sites.

Documentation
* The internet has various websites which describe the trail from a touristic point of view, for example this one, with a little map

* On the website Tales of the Czech Forests by photographer Vladimir Pomertzeff a beautiful series of photos and an extensive review of life and work of Václav Levý

* Article in Wikiwand
* Series of pictures on a touristic website

* Series of photos of the Devil's Head and other creations by Marcus O.Bst  on Flickr

* An article (2015) by Marcus Obst on his website, with a variety of photos
* Marie Černá, Václav Levý, Praha (SNKLU), 1964, -125 p  ill
* Pavel Konečný and Šimon Kadlčák, Atlas spontánního umění (Atlas of spontaneous art), Prague, 2016 (ISBN 978-80-906599-1-9). p. 44-51

Václav Levý
Devil's head and other rock sculptures
along a footpath in the rocky area between Libechov and Želiziy
Mělník district, Central Bohemian region, Czech Republic

can be seen from the footpath