Dominique Lebrun

Dominique Lebrun (born 9 September 1950) is a French artist, journalist and historian of American cinema.

Biography Lebrun started his movie posters collection when he was 10, reclaiming them from local theaters. He also collected photos and movie magazines, including Cinémonde, out of which he cut photos of actors to paste them in his school notebooks.

In the early seventies, he moved to Paris and had many different occupations including projectionist at the Espace Pierre Cardin, archivist and researcher for producer André Paulvé and assistant for a primitive art gallery. He then became a cinema historian and journalist.

In 1972 and 1974, he took part in Monsieur Cinéma, a popular French television game show of movie trivia, hosted by Pierre Tchernia.

Paris Hollywood, his first film book, was published in 1987. It is a tribute to all the French actors, directors, technicians and writers who contributed to the history of American cinema. To write this book, Lebrun gathered photos and interviews in both Paris and Los Angeles, over a span of ten years.

For this work, Lebrun was invited in several French TV shows, including Apostrophes hosted by Bernard Pivot and Du Côté de chez Fred de Frédéric Mitterrand.

In 1992, Trans Europe Hollywood was published. In his second film book, he explores the contribution of Europeans to American Cinema.

In 1996, he wrote Hollywood, a history of Hollywood studios from 1914 to 1969, published both in French and English.

Over these years, Lebrun also contributed to the Catalogue du Musée du Cinéma Henri-Langlois, Paris museum of Cinema's catalogue, and the Dictionnaire de la Mode au XXe siècle, a dictionary of twentieth century fashion. He also performed in several short films including Cough Therapy and Antoine directed by Jean-Philippe Laraque.

He started his artistic work in 2008, and made his first collage using his collection of Mon Ciné 1920's movie magazines. He then decided to continue exploring this path, turning this time to his collection of movie posters.

In 2011, his first exhibition took place at Flora Jansen Gallery in Paris, on Matignon avenue. Since then, his work has been shown in exhibitions in Paris, Saint-Tropez and Bruxelles. In 2018, he made his U.S. debut in Los Angeles.

In June 2021, Lebrun Dechirures, a monography about his work, is published in Paris, including an exclusive text by French critic Pascal Mérigeau.

Style, technique, and reception Lebrun uses intact original film posters from his own collection. He tears them up, then pastes the pieces on canvas. He imagines and builds new stories, recomposing portraits, scenes or abstract figures.

He says that he uses pieces of posters like a painter uses colors; that through stacks and layers, he's trying to create motion; that he makes use of the image of stars or unknown actors, to conceive new characters, be they male, female or hybrid.

He talks about the unexpected and extreme pleasure he experiences, when tearing up and caressing paper; and about his urge to convey, through his work, emotions as intense as his passion for cinema.

Exhibitions 2011 : Collages Galerie Flora Jansem, avenue Matignon, Paris 2014 : Purgatoire, rue de Paradis, Paris 2015 : Galerie Origine, rue des Ecouffes, Paris 2016 : Rips Galerie BY Chatel, rue des Tournelles, Paris 2016 : Hotel La Vigne, Ramatuelle 2017 : All My Movies Espace Beaurepaire, Paris 2017 : Saint-Tropez-des-Prés Hôtel de Paris, Saint-Tropez 2017 : The Cow Parade at the Movies La Baule - Dinard - Deauville 2018 : A Scent of Taboo Galerie Émilie Dujat, Bruxelles 2018 : Icon Remix THE LAB by Please Do Not Enter, Los Angeles 2019 : The Sixth Space THE LAB by Please Do Not Enter, Las Vegas 2019 : Palm Springs Fine Art Fair, by Please Do Not Enter, Palm Springs 2020 : 10 Years Already, B Gallery, Paris 2020 : Atelier Beyond The Walls, Espace Beaurepaire, Paris 2021 : Stars Destruction Transformations, Espace Beaurepaire, Paris

Works