Jean Gaudaire-Thor

I started painting and sculpting in 1965, but my particular interest in the primordial signs started while traveling in Egypt in 1975. Many other studies travel followed including to Soudan, Italy, Greece, the USA, Hawaii, China, Ethiopia, and Cyprus.

Along the years and across several successive periods, I developed a core philosophical concept in my work. It evolved from my early and fortunate introduction to archeology in my youth and my subsequent fascination for prehistoric art and Paleolithic cave paintings, to eventually merge with a structural process of layers, or strata, from matter, space, time and cultures.
My work often results from the creation of associations by a collage of elements as diverse as photographic reproductions, printed fabrics, or cut out pieces of my own work, with bold abstracts signs. This process induces a particular complementarity and osmosis between the various components. A singular theme may sometime lead to various developments such as in musical composition.
Gaudaire Thor’s has also worked on several books in collaboration with French and Italian writers and poets including Jean-Claude Montel, Hubert Lucot, Claude Delmas, Jacques Roubaud, Michel Butor, Jean-Clarence Lambert, Alberto Moravia, Nico Orengo, and Davide Longo.
Since 1967 his work has been exhibited in more than three hundred individual and group shows in Europe and in the USA. It is found in numerous public and private collections such as Musée of Modern Art, Paris, France; National Library, Paris, France; Rimbaud Museum, Charleville Mézières, France; Vatican Museum, Rome, Italy; Beyeler Foundation, Bazel, Switzerland.
Born on October 16, 1947 in Sens, France. Lives and works in France and Italy.


-Studies:
Atelier Met de Penninghen, Paris, France
Ecole Nationale des Métiers d’Art, Paris, France

-Galleries:
Galerie Weiller, Paris, France Studio Ellci. Milano, Italy Il Fondaco, Bra/Torino, Italy Faro Arte, Ravenna, Italy
Awards and grants:
La Vela d’Argento, Ravenna, Italy 2003. Bemis Foundation, Omaha NE, USA 2004 Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant, New-York, USA 2005