Patrice Stellest

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Patrice Stellest
Portrait - Patrice Stellest.png
Stellest at the Trans Nature Art exhibition opening in Chinon, France in 2000
Born (1953-05-23) May 23, 1953 (age 68)
Nationality  Switzerland
EducationCalifornia Institute of the Arts, Art Center College of Design
Known forConceptual art, Installation art, Painting, Film
Notable work
The Solar Head, Stellephant
MovementTrans Nature Art
AwardsArt Center College of Design film award

Patrice Stellest, (a.k.a. "Stellest"; born May 23, 1953) is an artist renowned for founding the Trans Nature Art movement.[1] He is considered an eco-futurist visionary.[2] Stellest is one of the founding fathers of renewable energy sculptures.[3] He is also the father of French writer Pablo Daniel Magee.[4]

Life and career[]

After a childhood spent in his hometown, Stellest left for the United States, where he trained at the California Institute of the Arts, co-founded by Walt Disney. While there, he specialized in experimental art under his mentor, Jules Engel, animator-in-chief of the Fantasia cartoon. After obtaining his diploma, Stellest continued his studies at the Art Center College of Design[5] in Pasadena, California. During this time, he directed a series of short films associating artistic experimentation and music. Sensing that there was a future for video clips, he presented his work to filmmaker Oliver Stone while the latter was directing the film titled The Doors. In 1982, Stellest received the first Art Centre Prize for Portraits 1982, which highlights the place of women in the art world. This work was to be re-edited in 2005 in collaboration with New York DJ Moby.

In 1984, Stellest moved to Paris and took over the studio of artists Claus Oldenburg and James Rosenquist. However, it is in the Touraine where, following in the footsteps of Max Ernst, he blossomed out artistically by initiating himself in the techniques of welding on pieces of scrap metal. He wished, in this way, to restore meaning to this unused raw material. He went on to broaden his knowledge of sculpture on metal as an assistant to Greek artist Costa Coulentianos in Saint-Rémy de Provence, in the South of France. He then became friends with César, Annette Doisneau, René Dürrbach, Leo Castelli and the German writer Ulrich Zieger, screenwriter for Wim Wenders' film Faraway, So Close!, winner of the Grand Prix at the 1993 Cannes Film Festival, for whom he went on to illustrate three books (See the Books and Publications Section). Around the same time, he began a long relationship by correspondence with emblematic exhibition commissioner Harald Szeemann (This correspondence can be consulted today in Files 1668 and 3906 of the Szeemann Collection at the Getty Research Institute Library in Los Angeles).

A Frenchman at heart, it is in Paris that Stellest created his artistic movement, Trans Nature Art. He was working at the time with the assistant of Jean Tinguely, Martin Bühler, and CNRS physicist-artist Bernard Gilton on a new genre of works of art bearing a message that had always been present in his mind: the defense of nature and the environment. He also collaborated with the French master of neon, Benoit Nabineau, incorporating light into his works, powered by solar energy.[6] He shares this aspiration for Green art with Joseph Beuys, Sarah Hall, Rosalie Gascoigne and Julian H. Scaff. The encouragement he receives at the time from his friend Dora Maar,[7] Pablo Picasso's wife, push him to move forward with his new concept. The idea is to create works in osmosis with nature[8], a movement that stems from renewable energy. This movement's landmark work is The Solar Head.[9] Designed to work at its own rhythm thanks to solar energy, this sculpture was the first in a long series of interactive sculptures associating state-of-the-art technology and a new message from the artist.[10] In 2003, the German photographer Thomas Kellner devoted a reportage to Stellest, who was also the focus of an exhibition in Europe.[11] In 2009, he took part in the making of the experimental art film Pass:on, written and directed by his son, Pablo Daniel Magee. This project involved eight international artists, including John Altman, who composed music for the films Titanic, by James Cameron, James Bond: Golden Eye and Monty Python’s Life of Brian, and was the saxophonist for Sting, Bob Marley, Jimi Hendrix, and other musicians.[12] In 2010, he was the subject of a book titled Stellest, published by Betascript Publishing in the United States and written by U.S. art critics Lambert M. Surhone, Mariam T. Tennoe and Susan F. Henssonow.

After withdrawing for a brief period, Stellest returned to the artistic scene in 2011, when he produced the short 3D film Stellest Genesis,[13] drawn and animated by French graphic artist Romain Caudron and directed by his son, Pablo Daniel Magee, once again with the participation of DJ Moby. In the same year, he illustrated the last work of Ulrich Zieger, Première visite dans le refuge (First visit to the refuge), did a series of exhibitions in which he presented The machine for making green babies and went on stage, electric guitar in hand, to present musical compositions of his own.[14] In 2012, Dr. Paul O’Brien, a professor of aesthetics and cultural theory at the National College of Art and Design in Dublin, did a study of Stellest as one of the intellectual disciples of artist Joseph Beuys in an article he devoted to art, culture, and ecology.[15] In 2013, authors Jesse Russell and Ronald Cohen authored a book on him, which they soberly titled Patrice Stellest. Very involved in the academic world and the transmission of knowledge (he has given presentations in schools throughout his career[16]) Stellest took part in 2016 along with Kathleen Deck in the Conservation through Creation initiative of the University of California Irvine with the aim of drawing attention to global warming through art.[17] A lover of the Touraine, he did an exhibition in 2018 at Azay-le-Rideau, heartthrob city of artist Alexander Calder.[18] During that exhibition, he presented his latest short film Renewable Energy Art Made in France[19].

In 2019, the University of Chicago inaugurated a course on the work of Stellest.[20] In 2022, he is taking part in the charity initiative Une Oeuvre pour l'hôpital, aimed at raising funds for French hospitals confronted with the COVID-19 pandemic.[21]

Books and Publications[]

  • Ulrich Zieger, Patrice Stellest, Grosse beruhigte Körper, Berlin, Galrev Druck, 1992, 112p. ISBN 9783910161238
  • Ulrich Zieger, Patrice Stellest, Schwarzland, Berlin, Qwert zui opü, 1994, 48p. ISBN 9783910161443
  • Ulrich Zieger, Patrice Stellest, Première visite dans le refuge, Berlin, Rugerup, 2011, 98p. ISBN 978-3942955058
  • Lambert M. Surhone, Mariam T. Tennoe, Susan F. Henssonow, Stellest, Los Angeles, Betascript Publishing, 2010, 120p. ISBN 9786133665491
  • Jesse Russell, Ronald Cohen, Patrice Stellest, New York, Transmedia, 2013, 80p. ISBN 9785512439012

Press -TV & Radio-[]

  • Ils chantent à la lune des mélodies ancestrales, Die Welt, 2 February 1992
  • Stellest : Une success story à la française, France 3, 4 August 1992
  • L’art Trans Naturel de Stellest, TV Science Frontière, France 3, France Piolet Production
  • Trans Nature Art : un art pour vivre, Radio Europe 2, 8 April 2000
  • Stellest : Pérégrinations d’un suisse en France, Télévision Suisse Romande (TSR), 14 July 2000
  • Une introduction à Trans Nature Art : entre art et musique, MTV, 24 November 2000
  • Le Trans Nature Art en scène, France 3, 12 December 2000
  • Un soir un artiste : Stellest, M6, 22 December 2000
  • Tapis Rouge à Stellest, France Bleu radio, 14 June 2011

Notes and references[]

  1. ^ Ferrand, Robert (2021-06-09). "Quand l'art dialogue avec l'environnement". La nouvelle République (in French). Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  2. ^ Team, Arte Lusso (2020-01-24). "Sustainability in art". Arte & Lusso. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  3. ^ Hainsworth, James (2021-04-29). "On the matter of environmental art subjects and eco arts". Spoken vision. Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  4. ^ Burcea, Dan (2021-03-16). "On ne peut rien prendre à la légère dans un tel livre". Lettres Capitales (in French). Retrieved 2022-01-11.
  5. ^ Freemoth, Harry (2021-08-18). "Art Center College of Design notable alumni". Art Center College of Design. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  6. ^ Steiner, Michel (2004-08-10). "Benoit Nabienau et l'art de l'enseigne au néon". Les Échos (in French). Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  7. ^ Stellest, Patrice (2014-02-02). "Stellest: his friendship with Dora Maar". youtube (in French). Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  8. ^ Caudron, Romain (2015-02-01). "Orbital Solaire Série 2". Sketchfab. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  9. ^ Ferwith, Julian (2001-04-22). "Stellest interviewed about the Solar Head". Vimeo. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  10. ^ Lanvin, Gaston (2018-09-20). "L'avenir de la planète vu par Stellest". La nouvelle République (in French). Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  11. ^ Kellner, Thomas (2003-03-22). "Stellest Trans Nature Art". Thomas Kellner. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  12. ^ Magee, Pablo Daniel (2009-06-21). "Pass:on". Vimeo. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  13. ^ Magee, Pablo Daniel (2011-04-12). "Stellest Genesis". Vimeo. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  14. ^ Rollin, Jacques (2011-05-05). "Stellest, de l'art tout vert pour un monde sans guerre". La nouvelle République (in French). Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  15. ^ O'Brien, Paul (2012-10-02). "Art, Culture and Ecology" (PDF). Cultureal studies research. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  16. ^ Duprès, Frédéric (2014-10-17). "Stellest et les petits Jocondiens". La Nouvelle République (in French). Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  17. ^ Deck, Kathleen (2016-04-26). "Conservation through creation". University of California Irvine. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  18. ^ Pandrot, Richard (2016-04-26). "Azay: le renouveau". Info Tours (in French). Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  19. ^ Stellest, Patrice (2018-01-25). "Renewable Energy Art Made in France". youtube. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  20. ^ Dardar, Suzan (2019-04-07). "Renewable Energy Sculpture" (PDF). University of Chicago. Retrieved 2022-01-14.
  21. ^ Dandrot, Jonathan (2022-01-16). "Azay:Une oeuvre pour l'hôpital". Une oeuvre pour l'hôpital (in French). Retrieved 2022-01-14.
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