GASTON CHAISSAC,
"a man of letters "

The Musée de la Poste is particularly interested in the place the written word plays in art. In this sense Gaston Chaissac makes an exceptional contribution. By bringing together more than 200 works of art – paintings, collages, letters and drawings often never shown before – the exhibition enhances the value of the letters between Chaissac and his network of correspondents as missives, as well as the letters as components in the writing of his paintings and his collages. This is also the opportunity to talk of nearly twenty of his correspondents, whether famous or anonymous, through a work, a photograph and their missives.

The triumph of the word

Writing, whether imaginary or real, intervenes in Gaston Chaissac’s plastic production from the beginning with his own signature which goes very quickly from being a signature to becoming an autonomous element in the composition that makes a sign, and it continues with titles – when he deems it useful to name one of his works of art – influenced by poetry, by the knowledge of words, the association of ideas. The word triumphs as well in the collages when he combines newspaper clippings, ads and product brands. This graphic and verbal manipulation could be put in parallel to Apollinaire’s calligrammes.

A relentless writer

Gaston Chaissac was a relentless writer, writing between 4 to 5 missives a day and building up a huge network of correspondents with whom he corresponded more or less regularly over a more or less long period. The people he met or the phone book in which he chose a name with is eyes shut were some of the methods he used to enlarge his circle. Yet, the magazines he was particularly fond of, whether proletarian literature, surrealist magazines or poetic reviews, were his greatest source of correspondents.

Two hundred correspondents

Chaissac always used the same strategy. “I write letters, not as one does usually by sending a letter every 2 or 3 months. When I start writing someone I do it every day, various times the same day, for 3 or 4 weeks. At one point I stop, and then I start up again. If I bore my correspondent he throws the letter into the paper basket; if he is interested… The complexity of the creator's work and the means he used to communicate are shown through his correspondance with nearly twenty of the 200 persons listed to date This includes his wife, his daughter, painters such as Albert Gleizes and Jean Dubuffet, writers such as Jean Paulhan or Michel Ragon, photographers, journalists, magazine editors, gallery directors, as well as residents from his native town of Sainte Florence in Vendée. Chaissac uses letters like a platform from which he builds his own personality.

Illustration: : Gaston CHAISSAC Untitled, 1956 – Indian ink on Canson paper, 32x23,5cm Private collection © Photo : Michel Fischer © Adagp Paris 2006

PUBLICATION

Exhibition Catalogue: Gaston Chaissac, homme de lettres, 26 x 23 cm, 96 p. ill. Collection Un timbre - Un artiste Co-publication École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts / Musée de La Poste. 22 €

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