Jean-Michel Alberola

Sans titre de la série : Le Massacre des Innocents

Jean-Michel Alberola first showed his works at a group exhibition in the Toulon Salon (1975-76). He acquired fame after his works were included in the permanent exhibition of the Musee d’Art Moderne in Paris. His first personal exhibition, Susanna and the Elders, was held at the Galerie Daniel Templeton in Paris in 1982. Since then, the artist has held more than thirty one-man shows. One of his most extraordinary exhibitions was the series of wall paintings that he presented in Bratislava…

‘Please note: jma wishes to make it clear that five paintings are not yet finished.’ Jean-Michel Alberola once placed this text at the entrance to a Paris gallery as an introduction to his exhibition. It was a remarkable statement, particularly because the exhibition consisted of only six paintings and a photograph. Only one painting was signed and given a sale number. By doing this Alberola was effectively undermining the gallery business, which after all regards art as a commercial product as well.

Such Duchamp-like ‘pranks’ are not uncommon for Alberola. These can include providing his work or its context with some sort of commentary, hanging paintings too high or selling small monochrome paintings as ‘recycled’ objects – and thus suggesting that such a small plane of color is sooner a reused idea than an original work…