Jean-Baptiste Valadié

(French, b. 1933)

Born in Brive-la-Gaillarde in 1933, Jean-Baptiste Valadié is a painter, sculptor, engraver, designer, lithographer and illustrator. He began training at Cours Charpentier in Montparnasse and studied applied arts for four years. He graduated in 1955.

The artist always had his crayon when he went to Place du Tertre to sketch. "The work of art comes into being through fantasy, dream, irrationality and sensuality", says the artist. His works offer the sweetness of dreams or a "Venetian dream", as one of the titles of his lithograph suggests. Grace suspends under his pencil's grip and highlights visual harmony. Its "laziness" attains its fulfillment and its "Harmony" opens towards infinite horizons of dreams.

An insatiable wanderer, he presented his first exhibition in Dakar (Senegal), followed by an exhibition in Algiers during his military service in 1960. Exhibitions flourished in France as well (Paris, Cannes, Lyon) and abroad: South Africa, England, Australia, United States, Japan, Sweden, Switzerland, and Belgium.