Said to have “revolutionised the visual vocabulary of contemporary art” Jean-Pierre Raynaud lives and works in Paris. Launching his artistic career filling a flower pot with cement, Raynaud is renowned for La Maison, his house in La Celle Saint-Cloud near Paris that he designed and lived in from 1969 and which he covered obsessively with white ceramic tiles measuring 15 x 15cm. before having the house demolished and subsequently reusing the rubble. His focus has been to transform everyday objects into symbols charged with significant human concerns, combined with the bold, often primary colours of his work – and mass market associations – he draws allusions to Pop Art.

Said to have “revolutionised the visual vocabulary of contemporary art” French conceptual artist, Jean Pierre Raynaud, is known for his bold, often provocative installations that explore themes of structure, order, and the psychological implications of space. His works which relate to La Maison, such as the present piece, encapsulate his fascinating with space and memory.

He gained early recognition in the 1960s with his Psycho-Objects—containers and sterile vessels evoking clinical or institutional environments. One of his most famous works is La Maison (1969–1993), his house in La Celle Saint-Cloud near Paris that he had entirely tiled in white 15 x 15 cm. white ceramic tiles, and which he lived in from 1969 (see images below).

In 1993 Raynaud ‘liberated’ the house and turned into a new form by demolishing it – a process which consisted of filling a thousand steel containers with the resulting rubble. The installation was exhibited in 1993 in the nave of the CAPC, Musée d’Art Contemporain in Bordeaux.

The CAPC was also the location for a retrospective of the artist’s work in 2019 – Que Chacun Enchante Sa Prison (12 July 2019 – 22 Sept. 2019) which included a large number of the filled steel containers from La Maison, (see image).

Raynaud’s work frequently involves repetition, industrial materials (such as tiles, metal, and concrete), and a stark aesthetic that blurs the line between art, architecture, and ritual. Raynaud represented France at the 1976 Venice Biennale and remains a key figure in post-war conceptual and minimalist art in Europe. In 1996, his monumental sculpture Le Pot Doré was exhibited in Berlin and Beijing before being installed at the Centre Georges-Pompidou in Paris. More recently, in 2018, the MAMO Centre in Marseille hosted La Flèche, which explored his continued engagement with architectural forms.