It is in the halls of the Louvre that the young Jean-Pierre Pincemin discovers the painting of the great masters of art history. His encounter with the gallery owner Jean Fournier in 1965 connects him with a young generation of avant-garde artists, including Simon Hantaï, Claude Viallat, and others who would form the Supports/Surfaces group. Jean Fournier tells Pincemin that he is meant to be a painter.
Taking this recommendation very seriously, his first works, **Carrés-Collés**, emerge—initially exploring themes similar to those of Supports/Surfaces—and later, **Palissades**. These are created based on predefined schemes: the canvas is cut into strips, dipped in paint baths, and then assembled into orthogonal compositions.
In the early 1980s, he gradually frees himself from the framework that structured his works, influenced by his exploration of printmaking. He also returns to using a brush and oil paint. The geometric compositions of the early 1980s push the boundaries of the investigations carried out with **Carrés-Collés** and **Palissades** to their extreme limits. At this point, Pincemin demonstrates that he is a painter who fully commits to his art. The painted pictorial spaces, no longer glued together, retain the principle of assembly that animated the **Palissades**. However, the painter's hand becomes discreet, hidden behind multiple layers of paint, resulting in two effects: an intensified pictorial quality, creating shimmering effects that verge on opalescence and extraordinary density; and a "time to paint" transformed by the patience required by oil painting.
In early 1987, during an exhibition titled *L'Année de l'Inde* at the Galerie de France, he presents 15 canvases depicting animals, trees, leaves, floral motifs, and more, marking the maturity of a process of emancipation from the structured framework of his earlier works. This evolution had already been evident in his prints and some rare paintings since 1980. From this point onward, his work diversifies, although certain stylistic constants remain: thick textures, layered painting, composed colors, sinuous lines, and a commitment to the canvas-grid and painted frame/border.
Pincemin’s works are never frenetic; on the contrary, they are deliberate and dense. His colors, always nuanced and meticulously crafted, are inimitable. From the coldest tones to incandescent hues, they strike the viewer with a powerful, undeniable clarity.
After *L'Année de l'Inde*, even as his motifs diversify significantly, Pincemin does not abandon abstraction. Tripartite compositions reappear regularly, explored in varying formats, alongside new abstract compositions featuring squares or circles. These retain the constructive spirit and the flatness of architecturally designed surfaces characteristic of the **Palissades** and the three-band compositions.
Continuing his exploration of forms, religious subjects begin to appear as early as 1988, including Mary Magdalene, Saint Christopher, Saint Roch, Saint Radegund, as well as *Créations du Monde* (Creations of the World), *Danses Macabres* (Dances of Death), *Chasses au Tigre* (Tiger Hunts), and even erotic subjects. This diversity of influences—classical religious iconography, exotic imagery inspired by Byzantine representations of the Virgin, and motifs from India (such as bestiaries and floral elements)—contributes to a reinterpretation of themes drawn from the classical iconography of European art history. It also reflects his appropriation of motifs from exotic repertoires. Unlike many painters of his generation, Pincemin directly references the old masters, shattering any notion of a distinction between modern and classical art. His curiosity and his desire for freedom and exploration refuse to conform to any artistic framework.
Herein lies one of the keys to his work: his courage, his freedom, and almost an impertinence in refusing to be confined by any artistic category or style. Pincemin is an explorer, navigating freely and always finding immense joy in painting and creating: *"I cannot imagine doing without painting as a place of voluptuousness."* His art exists within the universal mythology of the artist. At a time when many young artists aligned themselves with surface phenomena, joined schools or groups, and embraced theories, Pincemin was guided solely by the force of his inner world and the jubilant pleasure of his artistic practice. Far from reflecting ephemeral artistic systems, his work—rooted in a timeless creative essence—contains all the images of a memory, inexplicable yet self-evident.
