Jacques Villeglé

Born in 1926 in Quimper, France. Lives and works in Paris.
In 1944 he enrols at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Rennes with Raymond Hains, with whom he collaborates until 1954. He moves to the Ecole Nationale Supérieure et d’Architecture and, in 1947, to the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Nantes. In the summer of 1948 in Saint-Malo he begins his first experiments with art objects collected in the street, such as wire, which becomes: “drawing in space gravitating around a formal structure”. In February 1949, he creates the first torn poster Ach Alma Manetro. Paris by now becomes a source of materials through which he can implement his reflection on reality. He approaches the movement Lettriste creating, with his friend Hains, the Ultra Lettrism, and in 1953 publishes Hepérile Eclaté, a phonetic poem by Camille Bryen, which was made unreadable when read through strips of grooved glass made by Hains. In 1954, Hains and Villeglé tighten friendship with François Dufrêne with whom, in 1957, they have their first exhibition at the gallery Colette Allendy. The three artists, who will also become friends with Arman and Mimmo Rotella, meet during the Festival of Avant-Garde in Paris. In 1960 Pierre Restany writes the first manifesto of the New Realism and, in October, the founding declaration of the group, composed of thirteen members within which Hains, Dufrêne and Villeglé constitute the subgroup Affichiste, is signed. Over the years, Villeglé has several exhibitions, including those dedicated to the torn posters at Staatgalerie in Stuttgart and the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris. In 1997 Villeglè creates Atelier d’Aquitanie, a collective action through which he performs with his assistants in the streets of the city stealing the necessary to carry out his role, a gesture of appropriation that becomes a public performance in different cities.