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Jacques Parnel

"The function of art is to put questions, not to give answers."

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Notes of biography

Jacques Parnel is born in Chaville in 1946. His secondary education is shortened and the boy, attracted early on by drawing, tries in 1961 to pass the examination to enter the Technical College of Graphic Arts (Rue Corvisart). That same year he takes art classes, and the following year, enters the "Corvisart" and follows a general training in graphic arts (design typography, photography, illustration, layout). After a first position where he is a pictures retoucher, he joins the SNIP agency in Paris, agency that specializes in fashion advertising. The American art of the moment, Andy Warhol and the masters of Pop Art (Weisselmann, Rauschenberg, Indiana, Rosenquist, etc.) influence his profession and Jacques Parnel himself works his images from the cliches of the consumer society.
The young man travels: in Ireland in search of the roots of his family (1969), in the United States and Mexico (1972). He becomes independent illustrator in 1971, meets illustrators (Philippe Morillon, Dominique Gangloff). Jacques Parnel has then many work orders from advertising. American films of the years 50-60 (musicals, thrillers), the films of Alfred Hitchcock being honored by François Truffaut, are sources of inspiration for the artist, both on the theme and the form. The time is early in the hyper-realism. The appearing in France at the booksellers of magazines such as Life, National Geographic and Harper's Bazard, becomes much gold mine of documentation for an "image maker". Jacques Parnel discovers American illustrator Norman Rockwell, the painter Edward Hopper himself influenced by the movies of the 40s.
Jacques Parnel gets his first exhibition of his work in 1977 (“10 years of illustration”, La Galerie, Paris). He leaves Paris to settle in Biot (near Antibes) in the south of France. If the following years are still spent in commercial illustration, a personal work becomes necessary for him. In this area, Jacques Parnel works in series (acrylic). Thus, in 1984 (probably influenced by the series "The Fourth Dimension", then "X-Files"), he begins a series on "Flying Object". In 1986, Parnel starts a work on "visionary architectures", architectures that challenge balance and cause vertigo.
Jacques Parnel cultivates his garden and finds other ways of Art; he is greatly interested on concrete art, between geometric abstraction and conceptual art, with works by artists such Aurélie Nemours, Josef Albers, Honegger, Max Bill or Jean Arp. The regular attendance of the Foundation Maeght (St Paul de Vence) makes him more aware about the master of the twentieth century. The book "Intime Calder" is a revelation for him and Sandy Calder fascinates him by his simplicity, cheerfulness and creativity.
Jacques Parnel presents a series of paintings in Paris in 1999 (" The Shadow of a Doubt " Michel Gillet Gallery). This period corresponds to a heightened interest of the artist for architecture. In 2001, Parnel opens up to abstraction, performing multiple searches on frames and textures (ink on paper). Several exhibitions of this work follow.
In 2008, Jacques Parnel decides (he had the idea long ago) to offer some of his works to a wider audience, making digital prints from acrylic work made 20 years earlier.

Artists on display

The art and the artists display: proclamations, galleries, museums, personal or collective exhibitions. On walls or in shop windows, wise or rebels, posters warn, argue, show. Some were specially conceived by an artist for such or such event, other, colder, have only the letter.

Some were created in lithographic technic, most are simple offset reproductions. They are many those who like collecting these rectangles of paper, monochrome or in games of colours, in matt paper or brilliant, with many words or almost dumb.

We are happy also to be able to greet, by this pages, mythical galleries as those of Denise René, Louis Carré, Claude Bernard, Berheim Jeune, Maeght, Pierre Loeb and others.

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Complete work(s)

Complete work(s)
Non réalisé à ce jour. All the complete works

Bibliographic track and more

To read about the artist :
  • « L'Ombre d'un doute », in Libération, Galerie M. Gillet Willem, 1999
  • « Illustrer à Biot », in Strada, février 2003
  • « Lumière sur un illustrateur », C.L., in Nice-Matin, 2/02/2003
  • « J. Parnel : illustrer ! », cat. d’exposition, Maison du Tourisme de Biot, 2003
To read from the artist :
  • « New Realism », Hiroko Tanaka, in revue Illustration (Japon), mai 1984
Website :
No website dedicated to the artist.

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Art movements

+ ARTISTS OF TODAY / XXth century /
All art movements

See & discover

Beyond works currently in stock, it seemed to me useful to combine business with pleasure by letting you discover others works by artists in my gallery. These artworks, now sold or removed from our website, have been in our stock in the past.

These pages will undoubtedly make it possible for some of you to associate an image with its title or the other way round, for others it will be a good time to discover more on such and such artist. For the sake of confidentiality – the pieces being no longer available – we won't display neither their numbering or their price. For whatever reason, make sure to visit this amazing art database with to date 6441 online works just for your pleasure! Michelle Champetier

See & discover