Cheval (2) (2024) Drawing by Lionel Le Jeune

Born in Paris, it is now under the light of Provence that Lionel the Younger flourishes artistically, after having lived in Italy where his creative sensitivity was revealed... A multidisciplinary artist, he stands out for the expressiveness of his sculptures, his original oil compositions or his minimalist pop art photos. A remarkable work on several counts.

On the one hand, modeling, sculpting, assembling clay as well as plaster, driftwood, but also old metals, leaves, fabrics etc. recovered or found in nature, allow him a very great creativity and expressiveness. He creates characters, animals, totems or scenes inspired by history, mythology ... Themes and style sometimes close to an Alberto Giacometti or Marc Petit. But primitive art or even Celtic art (his Breton origins perhaps ...) can be sources of inspiration to which he feels close. An assertive artistic personality, he displays high plastic ambitions. He seeks in fact to identify, behind the moving appearances of the sensible world, the permanence of an intelligible order; thus making one think of Edward Hopper, De Chirico, Giacometti or Balthus, his beloved predecessors. Just like them, on the basis of a classical culture constituted by the assiduous frequentation of museums, he elaborates his own pictorial language to elevate, in turn, our daily universe to aesthetic dignity. In this, the urban genre scenes that he depicts say enough about the coherence of his approach and the success of his enterprise.

A seasoned draftsman, Le Jeune enjoys rigorous compositions, describing collective habitats at the foot of which passers-by and marginal people gather. Then, freezing his protagonists in seemingly innocuous attitudes, Le Jeune gives them a presence that is henceforth enigmatic. The solitude of each being that an exchange of glances never manages to break, further reinforces this meditative atmosphere. From our urban universe where the trivial seems to compete with the ugly and the futile, the painter extracts what will nourish his vision of a timeless and aesthetic world. Thus his portraits of combatants in modern wars whose overwhelming expressiveness struggles with time and history. Heir to this classical pictorial tradition that he admires so much, Le Jeune extends it with his singular talent, to bring to his environment the sharp gaze of someone who manages to go beyond the realm of appearances. His creations are present in many collections in Europe and around the world.

• Nationality: FRANCE
• Date of birth : 1975
• Artistic domains: Works by professional artists,
• Groups: Professional Artist Contemporary French Artists