Gailliard Jean-Jacques
Jean-Jacques Gailliard was a Belgian artist, born in Brussels in 1890 and died in Sint-Gillis/Brussels in 1976. He was a painter, draftsman and graphic artist. He was a pupil of his father Franz Gailliard and received further training at the academy in Brussels under the supervision of Montald and Delville (1903-1914). He was friends with, among others, J. Ensor and M. De Ghelderode. He made his impressionistic debut, went through a Symbolist period and from 1918 leaned towards poetic and lyrical abstraction. In the early 1920s he lived in Paris and evolved towards abstraction. Back in Belgium, he participated from 1923 in the activities of the Sept Arts and L'Assaut Groups. He became a defender of the modernist spirit and resolutely placed his painting in the sign of search and experimentation. He evolved into a very personal design that is described as Surimpressionism and in which the winding lines are particularly striking. He made landscapes, cityscapes, figures, portraits, still lifes and compositions. He often incorporated texts, explanations, into his works. His works exude fantasy, symbolism, poetry and humour. In 1955 he made two short films: Le Réveil d'Ensor and L'Ombre de Monsieur Rops. In 1958 he co-founded CIAFMA (Centre international d'actualité fantastique et magique) and Fantasmagie. Jean-Jacques Gailliarsd was a teacher at the Ecole des Arts et Métiers in Brussels. We can find his work in the Prentenkabinet in Brussels, in the museums in Ixelles, Brussels Ghent, Ostend, Verviers and Tournai. He is mentioned in BAS I and Two centuries of signatures of Belgian artists. (Piron)