Pierre Jahan French, 1909-2003
L'Herbier surréaliste (Urtica Dioïca), 1945-1948
Gelatin silver print, photogram, burnt edges
40 × 31 cm
Burnt photograph following the fire of the studio on the 6th November 1948. Perhaps Jahan's most surprising series in the photogram technique is the Surrealist Herbarium of 1945. Unlike Man...
Burnt photograph following the fire of the studio on the 6th November 1948.
Perhaps Jahan's most surprising series in the photogram technique is the Surrealist Herbarium of 1945. Unlike Man Ray, Jahan returned to the scientific origins of the photogram: copies of grasses and other plants superimposed on photographs. Unexpectedly, the fire in his flat - and studio - in 1947 completed the works. The photographs in the Herbarium were partially burnt, creating a new plastic dimension of the image. Although the fire was an accident, it does not deny its contribution to Jahan's work - chance always plays a fundamental role in surrealism, after all. It is one of its fundamental elements. With the fire, the Herbarium becomes even more surreal.
Perhaps Jahan's most surprising series in the photogram technique is the Surrealist Herbarium of 1945. Unlike Man Ray, Jahan returned to the scientific origins of the photogram: copies of grasses and other plants superimposed on photographs. Unexpectedly, the fire in his flat - and studio - in 1947 completed the works. The photographs in the Herbarium were partially burnt, creating a new plastic dimension of the image. Although the fire was an accident, it does not deny its contribution to Jahan's work - chance always plays a fundamental role in surrealism, after all. It is one of its fundamental elements. With the fire, the Herbarium becomes even more surreal.
Provenance
Artist's studio, ParisFonds Pierre Jahan, through succession