Jean-Jacques Gailliard
Ne Jamais Vernir

The selection of works by Jean-Jacques Gailliard on display at MDD consists of a very limited and subjective choice from his body of work, fitting within the framework of modest exhibitions featuring artists present in the collection but generally less known in Flanders. In this context, MDD seeks to explore certain intrinsic qualities within the artist’s oeuvre.

The artistic career of Brussels-born Jean-Jacques Gailliard spans approximately seventy years. Growing up in an artistic environment due to his father, Franz Gailliard, a renowned painter, Jean-Jacques Gailliard went through a symbolist period in the 1910s and a constructivist period in the 1920s before developing an extremely personal visual language that he remained faithful to throughout his career. He termed his style “surimpressionism,” viewing his painting as a synthesis of the material sun of the impressionists and the spiritual sun, blending the inner and outer realms. He continuously practiced this technique of overprinting, shadows of the past, graphic silhouettes of people and objects, translucent images, and more.

In his experimentation, he delves into abstraction without completely abandoning figuration. By employing both lines and color patches similarly across different planes, he creates compositions where perspective and proportions lose their significance in favor of pictorial rhythm. He maintains a wide variety of subjects, including street scenes, portraits, still lifes, interiors, mythological scenes, dream images, and more. Additionally, he continuously experiments with color usage and paint application. It’s worth noting that there can be many years between thematically or technically similar works.