Jacques Cauda, author and artist
How to define Jacques Cauda? The mission is not simple!
After studying philosophy, Jacques Cauda went to film school and became a documentary filmmaker. At the age of 45, he turned to painting.
In parallel with his successive activities, Jacques Cauda has never stopped writing essays. He is also director of the publication “La bleu-Turquin”, initially published by Z4 Editions and now taken over by Editions Douro. Yes, Jacques Cauda is all this at once.
He came to visual creation as a complete autodidact and started with erotic painting. He is now a painter who tackles a multitude of subjects and who always navigates between books and painting.
Dante, Nietzsche and Luca Giordano
Jacques Cauda has worked extensively on Dante, whose “Inferno” from “The Divine Comedy” he illustrated in 2020 with plates that form a superb artistic object halfway between a book and paintings. As usual, Jacques Cauda uses a mixture of collage and watercolour pastel “I start with the drawing and then I glue”. We find different artistic influences: religious painting, Basquiat’s work, comics with the use of bubbles for example, but also expressionist influences.
This work is composed of 36 plates that were produced in 36 days. Indeed, Jacques Cauda has adopted Nietzsche’s statement that “The dawdlers of knowledge believe that slowness is part of knowledge”.
An artist in a hurry to live
Jacques Cauda is indeed a man in a hurry. In a hurry to create, in a hurry to paint, in a hurry to write, in a hurry to live! He claims to be a descendant of the Neapolitan Baroque painter Luca Giordano (1634-1705) who was nicknamed “Luca fà presto” because he was so fast and tireless in the exercise of his art.
A race for life
Is this speed, which he cannot do without, not a race for life? It is true that in Jacques Cauda’s work, death and life are constantly intertwined. From a spot of ink, he creates black and frightening insects, but also flowers or fish with marvellous colours.
He was inspired by a work of the photographer Vanda Spengler, who depicted a rabbit cut up head down, and turned it into a beautiful, living watercolour rabbit.
His many portraits are often distorted and frightening, but when he is interested in film or jazz, he paints with gentleness.
Jacques Cauda and his artistic news
Jacques Cauda’s news in 2021 is intense. Throughout the year, the artist illustrated several books and magazines.
In July 2021, with the writer Angèle Casanova, he published the book “Maman, maman, j’ai rêvé de l’ours” (Mummy, Mummy, I dreamt of the bear), published by Du Carnet D’or. With this poignant book, the writer and the illustrator evoke a mourning. “They will say that you are not dead. They will say that death itself no longer exists.
In September 2021, Jacques Cauda published his last essay “Caméra Gréco” with Marest. It is a text on the relationship between cinema and painting, a theme that has inspired him a lot in painting.
In addition, 2021 allows us to discover the works of Jacques Cauda exhibited in many places including the BHN (Biennale Hors Normes) in Lyon.
To find out more, Jacques Cauda regularly posts his news on Facebook.
