From 01/09/2008to 01/01/2009
Recognized writer, storyteller, chronicler (radio such as France Culture, magazines including Le Monde, le Nouvel Observateur or L'Express) and lecturer, Jean-Pierre Otte started painting when he was 17 at the same time he started writing. he was born in the Ardennes in 1949. Eager for knowledge, he will study very different fields from biology and physics to philosophy and world mythologies. Since 1984, he has settled down in the lot at Larganol where he lives surrounded by animals. Fascinated by womankind, epicurean, he likes wine and walking. In 1976, his first book gets published and as soon as 1978, Jean-Pierre Otte lives on his writing and on his voice. He has specialized on all the creation myths and has transcribed them for about 10 years in the “Matins du monde” ; he also devotes his time to botany and insects watching (L'amour en eaux dormantes, Love in stagnant waters) and shows his joie de vivre in his “histoires du plaisir d'exister” (stories of the pleasure of living). Translated in China, United States, Germany, Hungary and Greece, about twenty papers and university thesis have been dedicated to his work and Jean-Pierre Otte has received the nature award from the Fondation de France, award given for the scientific discipline and literary skill of his works in botany and entomology.
By the end of the seventies, he becomes friend with Raoul Ubac, then in the nineties with Serge Vandercam - to his point of view the most important painter in the cobra movement (he will collaborate with him on few pieces) -. In addition, his friendship with Gerald Anspasch, art dealer and former student of George Grosz, will be significant. Over the years, Otte will meet with writers and artists as diverse as André Pieyre de Mandiargues, Paul Delvaux, Anaïs Nin, Roland Barthes, Maurice Chappaz, Bernard Noël (who will be interested in his « œuvres au noir » - works in black), Jim Harrison, cuban painter Ramon Alejandro, Olivier Debré, John Cage and more.
Since the eighties, Jean-Pierre Otte is a full time painter. His first exhibit was organized at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels in december 1983 (watercolors and paintings on wood). Between Olivier Debré and Zao Wou Ki, his last exhibit was just held recently in a Brussels art gallery. Otte is a man of unique sensitivity, he offers us mysterious and lyric works making up his own techniques and using a lot of boldness until he reaches his own alchemy full of beauty.