Like Cézanne in Véronique Sanson’s song Cézanne peint, Michel Jouenne paints for the delight of our eyes. His canvases arouse our emotions. They are like the confidences of a loving gaze. Jouenne the traveller is also a master of stillness and a troubadour of forms. His sculptures have all the expressive power of his paintings: a touch of humour, a little tenderness and his subject comes alive. The Paris-born artist has been a constant presence in figurative art since the 1950s, featuring at art fairs including the Salon d’Automne, Comparaison, Grands et Jeunes d’Aujourd’hui and Artistes Français. He achieved recognition early on and has gone from strength to strength ever since, earning the respect of gallery owners and his peers, winning numerous awards. Now he has his own museum space, the Musée Jouenne, in Saint Rémy de Provence, the crowning consecration of a life devoted to his art. An anchorage, like a safe haven for a man who was at one time an official naval painter. A fine biography written by his wife sums up a life one might call the odyssey of a true master of his craft. He shows us the Alpilles and the Camargue, the French provinces and the many countries he visited like so many moments of colourful happiness.
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