French-born Jacques Fromonot (1926-2014) committed himself to painting in his early twenties, abandoning his post as an engineer in Lyon in resistance to ‘systemization and routine - the greatest enemy for a creative spirit’. Entirely self-taught, he developed a singular body of work over the next seventy years, drawing primarily on his observations of a life less ordinary which took him from France to the jungles and urban sprawls of Latin America, the exotic homeland of his Indian wife Nina, and finally back to the Cote d’Azur where he settled permanently in the electric summer of 1968.
Fromonot developed a technical proficiency and a particular style. His dynamic compositions are characterised by the use of his palette knife as much as his brush, to create richly structured surfaces in luminous colours that are seemingly negotiated by light – an effect often likened to the radiance of stained glass windows and that earned him the title of ‘O Caçador de Luz’ (the hunter of light) in Brazil.
Though he never ascribed to a particular school or movement, he had an avid curiosity about art as a record of different cultures. His choice of subjects evokes a perpetual inner dialogue between the artist’s cerebral and intuitive sides, moving between intimate observations of everyday life, methodical studies of ancient civilisations and a critical appraisal of his age.
The intense yearning for a pure, large experience of life led him on the extraordinary adventures that inspired his body of work. He captured the unique quality of light and life in Brazil, the jewel colours of India and the visceral quality of events and encounters experienced as a participant rather than an observer.
Many of his paintings were sold or traded along the way, widely exhibited in galleries throughout Latin America (Buenos Aires, Lima, Montevideo, as well as the São Paolo Biennale), and later in Mexico City, France, London, Munich, Spoleto and New Delhi. In 1961, Fromonot was awarded first prize by the Grand Prix de Paris at the Salon d'Art Moderne, as well as 2nd prize at the Grand Prix de la Peinture in the Côte d'Azur in 1966.
In the late sixties, he produced an outstanding series on the folklore and traditions of India for a private collector. He was commissioned to paint the portraits of Prime Minister Nehru (who posed for him) and the leaders of India’s Independence movement. These were exhibited in London in 1962 at the Royal Society of Arts under "Aspects of India", inaugurated by Pandit Nehru and Indira Gandhi in the presence of the artist. Other important series are known to have been acquired by an American collector, an Italian Countess and philanthropist, an American art dealer and a French collector.
