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Jules Franck Mondoloni
FRANCE
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“I express life which, like my island, always remains to defend from what hinders it, gangrenes it, debases it.”
Jules Franck Mondoloni, born in Pitretu, Corsica on July 2, 1947, is a French artist, sculptor, painter, book illustrator, photographer, and poet who lives and works in Porto Pollo, Corsica. His works are featured in the permanent collections of Musée Rimbaud, Musée Archéologique de Filitosa, and le Musée National du Sport in Nice.
Bab Agdal - Marrakech | Acrylic
I had drawn all the doors of the ramparts of Marrakech in Morocco. I had specially made for this painting "the Agdal door with eucalyptus," by a Marrakech craftsman, a frame in cedar wood from the Rif. Another craftsman had painted, at my request, the floral décor according to my choice of colors and patterns.
Mondoloni’s esteem for his native Corsica is a theme that runs through much of his work. He illustrates the impressive panoramas between sea and mountains, the splendors of its still wild maquis, a reserve of fauna and flora, many of which are endemic to the islands.
Ciel rouge | Acrylic
Isolated in the dunes of southern Tunisia, these are modest earthen houses. The children ran to meet me while the women hid.
Mondoloni’s second language is French, his mother language is Pumuntincu, which is of bas Latin origin. He has communicated his passion for Corsican mythology through ink illustrations, “bandes dessinées.” As a sculptor, he bears a soul that has been forged by the multi-millennia tradition of the sculptors of stone megaliths from his native island.
Eclectic and polymorphic, Mondoloni’s work is that of a man curious about everything, who says to himself: "this is interesting, and that is interesting, and I'm going to use it all.”
In Jules Franck Mondoloni’s works, he portrays life and the diversity of its kingdoms with strength and grace. His art reveals the unfathomable amplitude of nature’s perspectives and various shades full of inexhaustible epiphanies. Mondoloni's work is naturally inspired by the grandiose and untamed beauty of his island. He expresses life which, like his island, always remains to defend from what hinders it, gangrenes it, debases it. His art is used for this purpose: to exalt, eroticize, subvert, halo, and transcend. This transmission preoccupies him, he becomes the ardent servant of it, devoted and unfailing. Art, he knows, is the privileged channel to reach, cultivate and reconquer a quality of intoxication and emancipation. Eclectic and polymorphic, Mondoloni’s work is that of a man curious about everything, who says to himself: "this is interesting, and that is interesting, and I'm going to use it all.”
Rimbaud: Autoportrait au tarbouch devant une bananeraie | Acrylic
1991 marked the centennial of the death of the French poet Rimbaud. In his honor. In his honor, I painted one hundred portraits and created two bronze sculptures of him. This painting is inspired by a photographic self portrait of Rimbaud from Harar, Ethiopia, in 1883. I put Rimbaud in the colors of the Mediterranean!
After my first visit to New York in 1996, at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I had my first viewing of Van Gogh’s paintings in person. This is a representation of what I think Manhattan would look like if painted by Van Gogh.
De la série "La folie van Gogh" | Acrylic
Mondoloni’s work seeks to preserve the natural and free state of his island. The defenders of the Corsican coast are trying to stop the artificialization of it. The island is quite small and much of it has become populated with barely occupied vacation homes, which take up space where there was once nature. The public domain has been privatized and the sea is being blocked by concrete structures. Where once the flowering plants called Posidonia sheltered a multitude of fish and seahorses, the rockfill for the docks for the boats in the marina have crushed everything.
Jules Franck Mondoloni’s art reveals the unfathomable amplitude of nature’s perspectives and various shades full of inexhaustible epiphanies. Mondoloni's work is naturally inspired by the grandiose and untamed beauty of his island.
What connects the artworks in this exhibition is that Mondoloni’s work has been profoundly influenced by the nuances of color and light, as a poet creates nuances with words. In poetry you’re allowed to say what you want; there is poetic license to create symbols in any pattern, just like with a painting.
What connects the artworks in this exhibition is that Mondoloni’s work has been profoundly influenced by the nuances of color and light, as a poet creates nuances with words. In poetry you’re allowed to say what you want; there is poetic license to create symbols in any pattern, just like with a painting. Photographs are the study of the mysteries of light, not just a snapshot of a particular moment that impresses him or a memory.
Statue-menhir en Corse du Sud | Ink
From the series "Santara et stazzona." Representation on paper of Neolithic monuments of the island of Corsica, from a series of illustrations of raw or sculpted menhirs. I have always been fascinated by these first statues of humanity which are a play on light and color.
Both of his parents have inspired his art in different ways. His father gave him the gift of a film camera in 1957, recognizing his creative eye at the young age of ten and since then he hasn't stopped photographing, though today he captures digitally. After the death of his mother, Mondoloni left Corsica to wander North Africa, seeking solace.
Deuxième panneau du diptyque "Pantalon Rouge" | Acrylic
South Tunisian hut of a douar, an Arabian village consisting of an agglomeration of tents or huts that encircle an open space.
The light of Tunisia changed his way of seeing, which moved him away from the classical vision imposed by the school of "realism resembling reality.” The light impresses the eye of the painter and renews his palette of colors. The precise, detailed line does nothing to contain the beauty, stripped of the Saracen atmosphere. What he saw during his travels in the vibrant decorations of the village festivals, in the colorful native costumes and in the hues of the desert, made him invent brighter colors that are often far from reality. The different processes of creation allow him to be more deeply at the service of Art.
This is a painting of the gateway to the Tunisian desert in the early morning. I was preparing for an excursion into the virgin dunes with my guide and dromedaries. The family of the guide attends the departure of the "roumi" (the French visitor). All the colors are invented to translate the impression of morning cold already invaded by the sun.
Carrefour des Departs | Acrylic
Mondoloni’s works are featured in the permanent collections of Musée Rimbaud, Musée Archéologique de Filitosa, and le Musée National du Sport in Nice.
From "Fallen Angel" Series | Watercolor
This painting is a game of playful colors used to depict a human body.
He paints to spread colors according to the rules of harmony. A color on the palette, once put on the canvas, becomes lighter or darker, affected by the surface and is not always what he originally intended it to be. A blue color can become green, depending on the proximity of other colors. He tries, since he is aware of this difficulty, to render on a canvas the truth of the colors to the best of his ability. All the learning is sometimes in his memory, sometimes in his unconscious and each time he invents a new way to arrange the colors, it is a mysterious, miraculous discovery.
This painting depicts eternal moments of ephemeral light of a winter day and the objects of a still life. The red coral is a reference from Corsican folklore, a symbol of protection against evil influences. It was once used as a means of barter.
Journées d'hiver aux pommes vertes | Oil
Mondoloni doesn't invent anything... in the end, it is always the painting that speaks for itself – it is she who imposes on us what she wants! When a painting seems finished, he looks at it and it seems to him that it was painted by itself.
E calanca di Piana, mani è dopu miziornu, diptych | Oil
Before tourism and the classification of this natural site, located in the Gulf of Porto, as a UNESCO world heritage site, our parents used to take us to visit and admire these pink rocks that drop into the sea. This was the education we were offered, the contemplation of the natural beauty of Corsica.
“All the learning is sometimes in my memory and sometimes in my unconscious, and each time I invent a new way to arrange the colors, it is a mysterious, miraculous discovery.
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