Jean Clair

Jean Clair is the pen name of Gérard Régnier (; born 20 October 1940). Clair is an essayist, a polemicist, an art historian, an art conservator, and a member of the Académie Française since May 2008. He was, for many years, the director of the Picasso Museum in Paris. Among the milestones of his long and productive career is a comprehensive catalog of the works of Balthus. He was also the director of the Venice Biennale in 1995.

Biography

His father was a farmer with socialist ideas and his mother a devout Catholic. Jean Clair was born in the sixth arrondissement of Paris. He was a student at two secondary schools, the lycée Jacques-Decour and the lycée Carnot, before embarking on a course of post-Baccalauréat preparation, the so-called khâgne, at the prestigious lycée Henri-IV in Paris. Later, he secured a doctorate in art at the Fogg Art Museum at Harvard University with scholarship support from the financier Arthur Sachs.

Speech made by Jean Clair in the opening session the Five Academies, October 23, 2012 - Cinq Académies:

Books/Studies/Museum Catalogs

Jean Clair published numerous books. Most are in French. For a complete list see the Jean Clair in the French Wikipedia.

Some books translated in English

Balthus: Catalogue Raisonné of the Complete Works by Virginie Monnier and Jean Clair, Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art (October 29, 2013); • ;

The 1930s: The Making of the New Man, Paperback, Publisher: National Gallery of Canada / ABC Art Books Canada; 1st edition (June 5, 2008) (Contributors include: Eric Michaud, author of The Cult of Art in Nazi Germany (Stanford University Press); Sander L. Gilman, author of Freud, Race and Gender (Princeton University Press); Didier Ottinger of the Centre Pompidou, Paris; and Jean Clair, former director of the Musée Picasso, Paris)

Cosmos: From Romanticism to Avant-Garde, 1801-2001 by Jean Clair, Jean-Louis Cohen, Didier Ottinger

Henri Cartier-Bresson: Europeans by Jean Clair, Anthony Rudolf (Translator) Publisher: Thames & Hudson Ltd Date published: 3/1/1999

Paul Delvaux by Jean Clair, Skira - Berenice, 1998 Publisher: Artificio Skira, Milano, 1998

Delvaux and the Antiquity by Sophie Basch (Contributor), Jean Clair (Contributor), Michel Draguet (Contributor), Alexandre Farnoux (Contributor), Philippe Jockey (Contributor) Publisher: EXHIBITIONS INT'L (March 26, 2010)

The 1920s : age of the metropolis. by Jean Clair, Montreal Museum of Fine Arts Publisher: The Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, Montreal Date published: 1991

(about exhibition from June 20-November 10, 1991)

Venice Biennale: Identity and Alterity-Figures of the Body 1895/1995 by Clair, Jean. Publisher: La Biennale di Venezia, 1995. ,

Cosmos: From Goya to De Chirico, From Friedrich to Kiefer: Art in Pursuit of the Infinite by Clair, Jean; Publisher: Bompiani, 2000. ,

Cosmos: From Romanticism to the Avant-Garde by Clair, Jean; Publisher: Prestel, 1999 ,

Important scholarly art studies in French Le temps des avant-gardes, Chroniques d’art 1963-1978, Éditions de la Différence, 22 novembre 2012. Journal atrabilaire Gallimard - Folio 2008. Malaise dans les musées Flammarion - Café Voltaire 2007. Le Voyageur égoïste Payot - petite bibliothèque / voyageurs 1999. Balthus, Flammarion 2001.

Some studies for Exhibitions Retrospective Henri Cartier-Bresson: the Man, the Image & the World. Henri Cartier-Bresson (1908 – 2004) | Le Couperet, V. The Decisive Moment(1952)

Point & shoot: photography, a child's play? Life & Work; Le Couperet HCB Frederik Neirynck 2004 – 2014

Notes and references