"Robert Coutelas (1930-85) was born into a poor French family who lived in a single room, and he died in a similar, pathetically impoverished, way. Nearly every opportunity life afforded he either abandoned or would broker no compromise for the sake of art. Now, 160 small works pay tribute to his vision at Asahi Beer Oyamazaki Villa Museum of Art.
"Coutelas left elementary school at age 11 during World War II, and when the war was over he worked in a spinning factory in Theirs, Auvergne. Fascinated by what was known as “arts populaires” — items by unknown craftspeople, that included portraits, tarot cards and votive images — he spent his pocket money amassing his own collection. His parents, however, initially opposed his artist aspirations and threw the collection away, which led to an attempted suicide with an electric cord that left him unconscious for three weeks.”
Wow.
And this from Japan Art Beat:
The French artist Robert Coutelas (1930–1985) created works from small scraps of paper with mythical imagery and poetic gouache paintings depicting part animal/part human creatures. Although humorous at first glance, a quiet sadness beats at the heart of the works of this artist who preferred a world of medieval artisanship, such as the stone masonry he learned in his youth, to flashy, fashionable art circles. Coutelas spent a long time cultivating his particular brand of folk art reflecting the people and animals of Paris and an old-fashioned French spirit. This exhibition spotlights these trends in Coutelas’ art, while also presenting early oil paintings from his time in Lyon, works on public display for the first time, and other pieces revealing his artistic practices. Let Coutelas pull you deeper into his creative universe.
How interesting; Robert Coutelas knew spinning, stone masonry and painting, preferred his work to society, and seemed to have a passionate nature.
I also found two books about his work on Amazon: I Seek the Small Golden Hand and Le Theatre Nocturne De Guignol - perhaps not surprisingly, both Japanese editions. Amazon's statement says '"He painted in gouache and oils on discarded pieces of cardboard and created ceramic works from clay collected in the city and fired in his potbelly stove."
What an interesting collection of materials. I had to find out more about the ceramic works, having learned and experimented with fascinating low-firing techniques myself while studying ceramics in the early 2000s. The alchemy of the process I practised, not in a pot belly stove, but in smoky fire pits stoked with seaweed, straw and wood had a direct, raw quality which I found creative and inspiring.