Jean Pierre Raynaud apparaît sur la scène artistique au début des années 60, dans une proximité avec les Nouveaux Réalistes. Avec la série des « psycho-objets », Il choisit d’interroger, par un dialogue avec les objets, le corps et l’espace, son angoisse de la vie. Les drapeaux, les pots, la signalisation et même le carrelage tout en gardant leur signification première sont détournés par l’artiste pour appliquer à l’art l’idée selon laquelle l’individualisme est révolutionnaire ! Critiquant constamment les doctrines et les idéologies il mettra en avant la violence abstraite des signes. Jean Pierre Raynaud, horticulteur de formation, remplit un pot de fleur de ciment à son retour de la guerre d’Algérie en 1962. Cet objet quotidien est alors utilisé comme un élément symbolique. Le pot est rempli de ciment : il devient inutile. L’artiste n’envisage plus la vie possible dans ce monde. Ce pot peut être vu comme un autoportrait.Ce symbole est ensuite décliné dans des formes et des couleurs variées. Les pots se retrouvent ainsi parés de motifs camouflage militaire, de couleurs fluo, métalliques ou de feuilles d’or. Depuis qu’ils ont été détournés par l’artiste de leur usage d’origine, ils sont voués au déplacement et à la rencontre, comme s’il s’agissait de savoir jusqu’où cette forme simple rencontrerait la reconnaissance, l’adhésion, la compréhension. Un pot doré géant, avant de s’établir définitivement au centre Georges Pompidou à Paris, est d’abord enchâssé dans une serre à la Fondation Cartier puis suspendu à l’extrémité d’une grue au dessus du chantier de la Potsdamer Platz à Berlin et même exposé au cœur de la Cité Interdite à Pékin !
Jean Pierre Raynaud appeared on the artistic scene in the early 1960s, in close proximity to the New Realists. With the series of "psycho-objects", he chooses to question, through a dialogue with objects, the body and space, his anguish of life. Flags, pots, signs and even tiles while keeping their original meaning are diverted by the artist to apply to art the idea that individualism is revolutionary! Constantly criticizing doctrines and ideologies he will put forward the abstract violence of signs. Jean Pierre Raynaud, a horticulturist by training, filled a flowerpot with cement on his return from the Algerian war in 1962. This everyday object is then used as a symbolic element. The pot is filled with cement: it becomes useless. The artist no longer considers life possible in this world. This pot can be seen as a self-portrait.This symbol is then declined in various forms and colors. The pots are thus adorned with military camouflage patterns, fluorescent colors, metallic or gold leaf. Since they have been diverted by the artist from their original use, they are destined to be moved and encountered, as if it were a question of knowing up to what point this simple form would meet with recognition, adherence, and understanding. A giant golden pot, before settling permanently at the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris, is first set in a greenhouse at the Fondation Cartier, then suspended at the end of a crane above the construction site of the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin and even exhibited in the heart of the Forbidden City in Beijing!
Jean Pierre Raynaud appeared on the artistic scene in the early 1960s, in close proximity to the New Realists. With the series of "psycho-objects", he chooses to question, through a dialogue with objects, the body and space, his anguish of life. Flags, pots, signs and even tiles while keeping their original meaning are diverted by the artist to apply to art the idea that individualism is revolutionary! Constantly criticizing doctrines and ideologies he will put forward the abstract violence of signs. Jean Pierre Raynaud, a horticulturist by training, filled a flowerpot with cement on his return from the Algerian war in 1962. This everyday object is then used as a symbolic element. The pot is filled with cement: it becomes useless. The artist no longer considers life possible in this world. This pot can be seen as a self-portrait.This symbol is then declined in various forms and colors. The pots are thus adorned with military camouflage patterns, fluorescent colors, metallic or gold leaf. Since they have been diverted by the artist from their original use, they are destined to be moved and encountered, as if it were a question of knowing up to what point this simple form would meet with recognition, adherence, and understanding. A giant golden pot, before settling permanently at the Georges Pompidou Center in Paris, is first set in a greenhouse at the Fondation Cartier, then suspended at the end of a crane above the construction site of the Potsdamer Platz in Berlin and even exhibited in the heart of the Forbidden City in Beijing!