SwissArtGallery · Documented identity

Jean-Charles Blais

Born : 1956Documented citizenships : France

Jean-Charles Blais came to prominence in the early 1980s with paintings made on reclaimed materials, particularly torn-down posters. Cardboard, cans, drums and newspaper pages are among the damaged materials or supports found in the street that he uses. In his studio practice, described as a search guided by media and processes, the body and its representation sit alongside questions of fragmentation, reversal, positive and negative, as well as absence. After graduating from the École des beaux-arts de Rennes, he took part in the 1981 exhibition Finir en beauté. The following year, he presented his first solo exhibition at the CAPC in Bordeaux; the Catherine Issert gallery has represented him since 1983.

From 1983 onwards, his paintings depicted figures with imposing bodies, confined tightly within their support. La Honte and Portrait couteau, both dated 1983, are among the works cited from this period. In the second half of the 1980s, he turned to faces and busts with highly simplified features. A solo exhibition was devoted to him at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 1987. His investigations also involve a range of materials, including cut paper, fabric, felt and translucent polyester. His practice extends to collaborations with fashion designers, theatre directors and choreographers, including Régine Chopinot in 1993. At the request of the Grand Théâtre de Genève, he designed graphic proposals for the posters for the 2008–2009 season; in February 2010, he collaborated with the architect Jean Nouvel on an installation presented in New York during the presentation of 100 Eleventh Avenue.

After discovering digital technologies, Blais developed digital images and projections of visual works. He presented Double vue at the Espace des arts in Chalon-sur-Saône in 2002, and the Musée Picasso in Antibes devoted a retrospective exhibition to him in 2013. Works by the artist are held in the collection of the IAC, Rhône-Alpes. In 2016, the Catherine Issert gallery presented a selection of recent and previously unseen works.

This profile brings together identity references for Jean-Charles Blais and paintings, drawings and works on paper documented in auction catalogues.

Documented auction references

22auction references

7auction houses

13documented results with prices

Artcurial Beurret Bailly Widmer · Genève Enchères · Kornfeld · Schuler · Germann · Piguet · Dobiaschofsky

References include catalogue entries and available results; they do not all represent completed sales. Attributed works and special lots are excluded from the priced results.

Works recorded at auction

Photograph : Piguet · Enlarge image ↗

Piguet

"Hô obèse"

Gouache

Original catalogue wording

"Hô obèse"
gouache

Catalogue period : 2026-09-08 — 2026-09-23

Published result : 850 CHF

Fees not specified in the available data

Estimate : CHF 1500–2500

Jean-Charles Blais

Documented auction references

Works recorded at auction

"Hô obèse"

Venc

Untitled

Untitled

Untitled

Sans titre (1984)

Untitled

Untitled (jcb 12 01 09)

"Sans titre"

Untitled

Untitled

Personnage,

Personnage

Profile portrait of a man, 1982

Untitled

Untitled, 1989

Untitled, 1984

Homme assis, 1982

Nature morte, 1983

Untitled

Untitled

Composition

Sources and references

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