44 artists pay tribute to Jean Marais

For a month, from September 16 to October 16, the « Village Honoré » gallery pays tribute to this sacred monster, through the exhibition « Jean d’hier, Jean moderne ».

Daniel Hanemian, is an art lover, in January 2019 he opened his gallery in the Honoré Village where Jean Marais had installed his pottery gallery in 1976.

To pay tribute to this sacred monster of theater and cinema, Daniel Hanemian has decided to set up the exhibition, which aims to revive the legendary character discovered thanks to Jean Cocteau, who for decades has invested the big screens and the stages of theater.

The exhibition « Jean d’hier, Jean moderne »: presents two episodes before and after Jean Marais

Jean from yesterday, we can discover in the exhibition, his life, his arts, his universe, his loves, film posters, photos, various objects, magazines and of course some pottery.

About forty artists, painters, sculptors and photographers have created a new existence through their works by restoring the image of Jean today.

Jean Marais met Jean Cocteau in 1937, during an audition for the staging of his rewrite of Oedipus King. This meeting marked the real launch of his career: « I was born twice, on December 11, 1913 and on this day in 1937 when I met Jean Cocteau. The filmmaker and playwright falls in love with the young actor, who becomes his lover, but will be his mentor, attending to his literary and artistic education, never mocking his lack of culture.

For his part, Marais would never stop helping Cocteau fight his intoxication. Marais « refused to enter the infernal circle of drugs, thus revealing a constant trait of his character, his total independence with regard to everyone and everything », writes Carole Weisweiller, author of a biography of the actor .

Cocteau gives him a first silent role in Oedipus King: he plays the role of the Choir. His role is silent because Jean does not yet master his voice enough for the theater, cigarettes help him transform it, at the risk of altering his health. In this room, he appears dressed in bandages, a costume created by Coco Chanel, friend of Cocteau, and that makes people talk. Almost naked, lying in front of the stage, looking straight into the eyes of the spectators, he imposes silence on those who whisper or sneer. The photograph of Marais, in this scandalous outfit, was published in many newspapers at this time.

He joined the fighting in August 1944, during which he enlisted in the French army and joined the 2nd Armored Division under General Leclerc. He served there, accompanied by his dog Moulouk, in the 501st combat tank regiment, supplied the tank crews with food and fuel, and drove a jeep called Célimène, then trucks. We salute his bravery after he was one of the only drivers left behind the wheel of their vehicle during the bombardment of their column at Marckolsheim in Alsace. He remained under the flags until April 1945.

At the end of World War II, Cocteau wrote him his big role in Beauty and the Beast. In his Diary of a film, Cocteau mentions that the shooting of his film, which nobody believes, starts in Rochecorbon in August 1945, and ends in January 1946. The shooting was very difficult to achieve. Cocteau, suffering from a serious skin disease, is hospitalized in Pasteur, in a sterile glass cage, and is only saved from eczema thanks to a new drug from the United States, penicillin. With this film, where he plays a triple role, Marais then becomes a legend.

To occupy his leisure time, he decides to make pottery, having had a brand new oven installed in the workshop of his new home. Helped only by books, his beginnings were funny, without success and he was advised to take filming lessons. In Vallauris, he comes to place an order for 200 kilos of clay and on June 6, 1973, he meets Nini Pasquali and her husband Jo, a potter in this town, near Cannes.

Her life will change, and the rest is a very beautiful friendship, an absolute trust that lasted 25 years until the artist’s death. The couple take the actor under their wing. Jo helps her master her art by teaching her how to turn.
For hours, behind his tower, guided by his technician, he discovers new gestures. His daring and courage soon led him to open his first gallery in Vallauris in 1975 with the help of Jo and his wife Nini.

In 1976, he also opened a second gallery where he sold his pottery and paintings in Paris at 91 rue Saint-Honoré under the brand Jean Marais, potier. The boutique is run by actress Mila Parély who plays the role of Beauty’s sister in Beauty and the Beast.

Then a third gallery opened in 1981 in Megève on the village square and a fourth in Biarritz. The sale of his works is important, reinforced by the success of his exhibition at Galerie La Cimaise in Montreal, Canada.

Daniel Hanemian and Patricia de Boysson are agreed to revive and realize by artists from the gallery and also guest artists the exhibition in homage to Jean Marais.

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Gabriel MIHAI

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