“Thank you for accepting a punk!” : Sète artist Hervé Di Rosa inducted into the Academy of Fine Arts

Hervé Di Rosa à la tribune. – Edouard Brane/Académie des beaux-arts.

L’artiste sétois Hervé Di Rosa a été officiellement installé, mercredi 12 juin, à l’Académie des Beaux-Arts.

This is an immense reward for this figure of contemporary art, master of popular and modest arts, whose museum he presides over in Sète. Hervé Di Rosa was officially inducted into the Academy of Fine Arts on Wednesday, June 12, in Paris. It was installed by her colleague Astrid de La Forest, member of the engraving and drawing section. The entry under the dome of the Sétois artist took place to loud applause, in the presence in particular of the French director, director and screenwriter Jean-Pierre Ribes, of the former Minister of Culture Rima Abdul Malak, or the mayor of Sète François Commeinhes.

"Thank you for accepting a punk, well, an ex-punk, into your prestigious company"

Astrid de La Forest welcomed "the abundant and eclectic art" of’ Herve di Rosa. "You immediately refuse intellectual discourse around art – inheritance of your direct access to images – for a physical, almost organic relationship with creation. So many areas of exploration which are inseparable from your reflection on artistic practice, establishing you as a thinker of the "modest arts", a diffuser-transmitter of other artists thanks to your role as patron- collector."

At 64, the Sétois is raising his art to the firmament.

Hervé Di Rosa was elected to the Academy on November 23, 2022 in chair IV of the painting section. In his speech under the dome, he shared his emotion and his pride, always with the humor that characterizes him. "Here I am before you in a full, tailor-made suit, to the sound of the drums of the Republic. All that's missing is the trumpets of fame, I don't really feel modest! Thank you to you who accept a punk, well, an ex-punk, into your prestigious company."

The artist thanked his parents, Yvonne and Marius, his wife Victoire, and his children, Vincent, Carmen, Théo, Tess and Antonia, who have encouraged him "since always". "Upon my arrival in Paris in the last century, he continued, the Academy was a mystery to me. I couldn't even locate it on the map. How could I imagine one day that it would become my home? Since my election, I have discovered its strength, its openness, its seriousness and its expertise. I still have a hard time imagining myself sitting in this chair."

Tribute to his predecessor Jean Cortot

He then paid a vibrant tribute to "creative thought"of his predecessor, the French painter and illustrator Jean Cortot. "The most important thing today is to revive my predecessor Jean Cortot (who passed away six years ago), also a traveler from a very young age. Immortal in our lives and in our hearts […]. Jean Cortot is a smuggler, but above all a great reader. The letters which transform into words then into texts are his pictorial material. He could still delight us with his painting-poems for a long time to come. I would have loved to meet this man, share our passion for books, share the margins in which he wrote, and our love of poetry. He would have taught me a lot. For Jean Cortot, there is no confrontation between abstract painting and figurative painting, he does not recognize himself in these aesthetic-political controversies. For him, painting is the seismograph of feelings and the place of all experiences."

The sword given to the artist as a symbol.

At the end of the session, Pascal Ory, member of the French Academy and scientific director of France Mémoire, presented Hervé Di Rosa with his academic sword. "According to legend, this sword was designed in 1794 by the painter Jacques-Louis David for the uniform of the students of the École de Mars, the first military school intended to train executives" , explains the Academy. His sword, designed by Hervé Di Rosa, takes part in the artist's mythology: character with multiple eyes, theater grotesque shadows, René and Renée, the spiral of the Simplon Simplon, in homage to Alfred Jarry, and the tentacular god Ah Ah Ah.
 

Hervé Di Rosa and Les Arts Modestes are still visible at the Center Pompidou as part of the exhibition "Le passe-mondes", to be discovered until August 26, 2024.⁠ Retrospective dedicated to the work of Hervé Di Rosa, the exhibition welcomes works from the MIAM collection, loaned for the occasion, and the latest map of the territories of art drawn by the’ rsquo;artist. ⁠

A Di Rosa exhibition is also available at AD Galerie, 335 rue Etienne-Lenoir in Mauguio, until July 31. I subscribe to read more