Venice

MICHEL RIGEL
The French artist, painter and sculptor Michel RIGEL, was born in 1950 near the city of Bordeaux in the South West of France descending from a family of winemakers from the famous Saint Esthephe region. His mother a teacher by trade an artist in her own right specialized in animal paintings.

It was close to the Pyrenees in the town of Pau where Michel’s artist talent started to take it’s first steps. After graduating from school, he worked in an architect’s firm, before starting his artistic career as a cartoonist.

By the age of 19 he had moved up to Paris and found an apartment on the rue Elysées des Beaux-Arts, where he attended courses at the “Beaux-Arts” art school. While not at the art school he could be found at the Sacré cœur with the local artists “montmartrois” of the Place du Tertre where he presented his paintings including the “La Maison de Mimi Pinson” and “Le Moulin de la Galette”.

In 1972 the Prefecture of Paris commissioned a fresco named “Bord de Mer”, an 8m by 2.5m triptych (which has sadly been destroyed).

During this time a spell at the etching and lithography studio “Bellini” under the watchful eye of Mrs. Remy taught Michel the ancient art on the Toulouse Lautrec machines and brought him into contact with Viera Da Silva and Zaou-Wou-Ki the technicians behind the lithographs of Carzou, Buffet and Dali.

Influenced by surrealism, in 1974, his direction changes to produce and deliver a collection of visionary paintings including; “La sixième sphéroïde n’est pas de Léonard de Vinci”, “Perspectives démentielles des civilisations futures”, “La fin d’un microcosme”, “L’Etre cybernétique”, “Pétropolis”, “Futura” and “Crucifixion sur cinq planètes parallèles”.

The “Crucifixion sur cinq planètes parallèles” was a commissioned piece for the Archbishop of Corsica, which in the end was rejected by the church due to the nakedness of Mary Magdalene…

In addition to his work as painter Michel Rigel is a talented and dedicated sculptor working many materials including lead and clay before the final cast in bronze is made. Creation is a fundamental necessity for him from cutting stone to kneading clay he seeks to emerge from the imaginary world around us and recreate the world according to his own vision.

In 1975, Catherine Guglielmi, an art critic in Corsica and founder of the La Biennale Azuréenne de Cannes under the honorary presidency of HRH the Prince of Bourbon Parme, gives him the opening into this international art event where Michel Rigel’s paintings (found side by side with Picasso and Picabia) were awarded “Grand Finaliste”. His happy benefactor then asked him to illustrate a book of children’s poems later published by John Grassin.

In 1976, he left for Italy with the travel bug running through his blood where short stops in Florence, Capri, Pompeii, Solfatara, a longer stay in Pisa and finally, his favourite city, Venice, which he has visited several times over the years.

Greatly impressed by the Italian classics of the seventeenth and eighteenth century, especially Canaletto and Guardi, lead him to paint a series of charts that were then sold at the Hotel Drouot auction house in Paris.

His main artistic achievements of this period were his paintings of St Mark's Square, the Doge's Palace, St Giorgio Maggiore, a gondola workshop, Rialto Bridge and the Customs. Over the years sketches made during this period have been also used for other oil paintings some of which are presented on this site.

A few years later he moved onto the Mediterranean town of Grasse, a beautiful area of Southern France known for its perfume and revitalising atmosphere to sculpt statues using the legendary local stone; White Alabaster found in the creek of the Hautes.

From 1975 to 1985, he participated in many national and international exhibitions from where his works of art found there way into the private collections of the rich and famous from Geneva, New York, Düsseldorf, Hawaii, Tokyo, Rome and even Rio.

In 1976, he created the sculpture " La Femme Robot" (1.5m x 0.50m x 0.50m) which won the prestigious bronze medal at the International Academy of Lutece. This work of art was later exposed at the Forum des Halles in Paris, before being sadly destroyed a few years later.

A visit one day to the sculptor Chamail Haber, (the architect for the Place de Catalogne in Paris), started Michel collaborating on several large projects, but sadly disappointed by the sculptor’s behaviour, he decided to break off early this association before any major work was completed.

In his painting " la sixième sphéroïde n’est pas de Léonard de Vinci" (50m by 100m) an example was also made at 200m by 100m Michel Rigel interprets the Mona Lisa and Leonardo on a futuristic landscape through large arches.

In 1978 he exhibited twice at the Forum des Halles, in the gallery Inter- Forum: Retro Futur. The same year, the city of Paris commissioned a mural of (7.5m by 2.5 m) entitled: Anti-perspective representing a variation of the ring of MOEBUS.

In 1980, he returned to Venice, where he painted various canvases, such as Piazza San Marco and the City of the Doges. During his stay, he painted my watercolours that provided the base for his future creations over the next ten years.

In 1990, he participated in an exhibition showing off his works of art based on the city of Venice. The exhibition was a huge success story and enabled him to work the next few years from the results.

In the beginning of the 90’s Michel moved to back to the Parisian region, settling down in the Tour des Vignes in Gagny. During this time he founded the association of the Painters of the future with a few friends that, unfortunately, was dissolved a few years later, following the suicide of one of the founding members.

In 1992, a series of paintings on Guadeloupe completes his collection.

In 1997 it was back again to Venice, but this time with sketchbooks, to create crayon drawings, sanguines and ink sketches.

In 1998 he produced "bronzes" in collaboration with the foundries Chappon of Paris.