Art and the Environment: French and Brazilian artists Rochette and Krajcberg denounce its destructio
In a context of tremendous anxiety regarding the environment (Environmental degradation, Global warming, Trump's will to quit the Paris Climate Agreement and their consequences), I want to enhance the importance of Brazilian artist Frans Krajcberg's work, and his impact on French painter Pascal Rochette, that his fans discovered during his last exhibitions in Palo Alto, California.
Frans Krajcberg is a Polish Jew naturalized Brazilian artist who denounces the destruction of the Brazilian forests, using burnt wood from illegal forest fires.
He's now exhibiting in Sao Paulo and Paris, including the Musee de l'Homme and Espace Krajcberg. This foundation took his name and chose the mission to make a link between Paris and Brazil to defend the Indian peoples and the rainforest.
Pascal Rochette has been restoring ancient places in France, and working as a mural painter for high-end villas in Brazil for 25 years. This French painter is now dividing his time between Brazil and California. He has helped the reforestation for 4 years and has lived two months with natives Pataxos in Bahia to learn their culture (read his testimonial).
Represented in galleries in Sao Paulo, Paris, and a part of SFMoMa Artists Gallery Program in San Francisco, he's praised by Art Critic Dewitt Cheng who exhibited him in Stanford University, by Fabio Magalhães (Artistic Director of the Contemporary Art Museum of Sorocaba), and Leonardo Goldberg (PhD Psychanalyst in Sao Paulo), among others.
Both artists are environmental activists, both live in the south of Bahia, and are inspired by the richness of the Brazilian forests, but they have opposite ways to denounce its destruction...
When I first met Pascal Rochette in Palo Alto, California, last year, he confessed:
- I discovered this reality [the destruction of the forest] when I bought a small house in Paraty, Rio de Janeiro, 25 years ago. It was the beginning of the awakening and also of the revolt.
I also knew at that time a figure of the denunciation of the destruction of the forests: Frans Krajcberg, my idol. But unlike this grand monsieur, I wanted to make an art on the reconstruction of the forests by showing its richness. So I represent this world and contribute to its survival, or at least to its memory, because it disappears considerably, and very quickly. My message is simple: we must preserve it and rebuild it if we want to live.
Tribute to Krajcberg, Pascal Rochette (2016, 60x40"). The French painter represents on the right his spiritual master's sculpture made of burnt wood.
Rochette uses acrylic painting to apply pure colors and to express the abundance and diversity of the nature of Brazil.
You are looking for projects to include the natives, you run a place that exhibits artists and are looking to raise more awareness to the contemporary art in connection with the protection or the environment, or you want to own a unique painting of Pascal Rochette? Contact me so we can discuss about the needs.
*See also on www.pascalrochette.com and follow the news on Facebook.
*Learn more about Frans Krajcberg's biography from the Polish Army to his tree house in Bahia, here.
*French readers, please learn more in Arts Hebdo's article and in Musee de l'Homme's article here.