A palette of arts
Is it the golden light of the Gers or its green landscapes that inspired the artists of the Villa de Séviac? In any case, they have left a legacy of sumptuous mosaics in this Gallo-Roman domain of the 4th century. These are the first visible artistic traces in the Gers. It is then necessary to wait for the Middle Ages and the construction of chapels, churches and castles to see the walls covered with frescos and sculptures. Religion is intimately linked to the development of art in the Gers. The Astarac pays tribute to this patronage through a "Route des peintures murales et sculptures" which leads to the most interesting churches in the area. Most of the works date back to the Middle Ages, as evidenced by the freshness and naivety of certain scenes. Lovers of sacred art will not miss the first figuration of a pilgrim to Santiago in the Collegiate Church of Saint-Nicolas in Nogaro, nor the stone altarpieces in the Chapel of Notre-Dame-des-Anges in Miramont-Latour and in the Church of Notre-Dame-de-Pitié in Biran. The abbey of Flaran builds a bridge between religious and classical art with the sumptuous Simonow collection. This British philanthropist has put masterpieces from the 16th to the 20th century on loan until 2021. Cézanne, Renoir, Matisse, Picasso, Monet, Braque, Rodin.... The greatest masters are there. Contemporary art finds its place in the Gers thanks to the excellent work of the Art and Photography Center of Lectoure, supported by the Ministry of Culture. Mainly focused on photography, it invites artists in residence and offers exhibitions with a singular look throughout the year. L'Été Photographique, a not-to-be-missed event for contemporary art lovers, presents promising or established photographers, video artists and visual artists in the city's heritage sites.
Inspiration Gers
If the residents of the Art and Photography Center of Lectoure exhibit the fruit of their work, they are not the only ones to be inspired by the Gers. During the summer, exhibitions abound in town halls, art galleries and restaurants, revealing the vivacity of Gers artists. Many of them have settled in the department because of the quality of its light, the softness and the melancholic beauty of its landscapes, inexhaustible sources of inspiration. Marco Cavaglieri, the most famous of them, depicts a bourgeois society in the grip of doubts in the Roaring Twenties. His colorful and abundant canvases do not hide the weariness and melancholy of his characters. Born in 1887 in Rovigo, Italy, he settled in the Gers in 1925. He abandoned the worldly portraits that had made him famous to focus on the Gers landscapes. His painting Peyloubère plage, après le bain (1933), exhibited at the Musée des Amériques in Auch, is without doubt one of his most successful. Cavaglieri died in his house in Peyloubère in 1969, leaving behind him a benevolent view of his adopted country. His house, classified as a historical monument, has been transformed into a gite and guest house. Christian Gardair, on the other hand, has never put down roots in the Gers where, as a child, he took refuge in Eauze. But the Girondin, born in 1938, keeps it close to his heart and keeps such a memory of this episode of his life that he has made it one of the major themes of his artistic work. " Never died in me the child who went on foot through the fields to learn to read and count by apples and matches, in the admirable peace of Gers while the Holocaust raged, " he wrote. In 2019 and 2020, the American landscape artist Marc Dalessio will be painting in Lomagne. He draws from his sojourns a series of bucolic and gentle oils and confesses, " the Gers is truly a sensational region for landscape painting and I could not recommend it enough to those seeking a picturesque place for plein air work. "
Major local figures
With its exceptional light and its undulating panoramas, one could imagine that the Gers has produced landscape artists capable of capturing its subtlety. But it is not so. It is in the art of portraiture that the most illustrious of Gers painters has let his creativity explode. Jean-Paul Chambas was born on March 11, 1947 in Vic-Fezensac. At only 20 years old, he hung his first paintings in a gallery in Toulouse. Two years later, he turned to narrative figuration and left for Milan in the footsteps of Arthur Rimbaud, to whom he dedicated several series. Inspired by writers, he approaches his works like the bullfighter goes into the arena: "Whether it's Kafka, Lowry or Rimbaud, I want to know everything about them. [I need the subject to make it my own and then I kill it. [...] At the end, if it is successful, the painting must eat up the subject. It is a fight A genius dabbler, he puts the same ardor in the creation of his theater sets. Carmen, mounted in 1993 at the Opéra-Bastille, consecrates him. His powerful genius can be admired at the Chaussée-d'Antin station in Paris or Mermoz in Toulouse. Another renowned portraitist from Gers, Gustave de Galard was born in L'Isle-Bouzon in 1779 and led an incredible life. Forced to flee the Terror at only 15 years old, he embarked for the Lesser Antilles from Spain. He started to paint for a living and built up a reputation in the art of miniature painting. He returned to France in 1802 and tried his hand at lithography, then at caricature, which earned him a stay in prison for having scratched Louis-Philippe. When he was free, he took up his brushes again and became the official portraitist of the Bordeaux bourgeoisie. Some of his paintings can be admired in the city's Museum of Fine Arts. Paul Noël Lasseran's talent did not take him to the museums but to the churches. This son of a sculptor and painter born in Lectoure in 1868 began as a house painter before trying his hand at trompe l'oeil. He refined his academic touch on the walls of the Taverne du Bastion where he had his habits. Spotted by the local councillors, he was invited to restore the frescoes of several churches: Goutz, Castet-Arrouy, Saint-Pierre d'Aubézies, Masseube and the chapel of the Carmelites in Lectoure.
