Michel Gigon

Michel Gigon (born1929 in Caen, Calvados) is a French painter, stained-glass window designer. He began his artistic career in 1953.

Michel Gigon made many exhibitions in France, Germany, Switzerland, Japan, and Poland. Many of its paintings are in private collections in France, Switzerland, Germany, Spain.

• Caen museum one painting.
• Rennes museum severals drawings.
• Arts et Lettres management of Paris one drawing.
• Kłodzko museum (Poland) one painting.
• CES Marcel Proust school at Illiers-Combray (Eure-et-Loir) one painting.
• Saint Germain l’Auxerois church Paris, one painting.

“It has been said and repeated a painter is a witness, who witnesses in colour, and this makes his evidence attractive. Even when he seems to cheat, whether it be through dandysme, calculation or contempt of his contemporaries, he is still telling the truth in a certain way: it is not him, it is his epoque, that is not frank. But Gigon does not cheat. He is too spiritual to do that. Destiny has placed him in a time of transition where the atomic centrifuge has scattered the last rays of light of impressionism, while little by little, the uncertain lines of a new world are being drawn, still in a state of vapour or project. At this crossroad, Gigon gives witness of continuity of the spirit, and the light in his work comes as if through the folds of a certain which has been half opened onto another world. There is something apocalyptic about his vision of heaven and earth. But is not that the time we are living in ? And the Apocalypse is not an end, it is the beginning of something else, a totally new era, for which Gigon already proposes the indestructible elements of his faith.” André Frossard, Author († 1995).

“Under the absorbing eye of a God always master of the universe, the apocalyptic frescoes of Michel Gigon unfold in centripetal swirls which recall, -but in a quasi abstract manner- the dantesque effusions of Signorelli, Michael Ange or Gustave Moreau. They are, however, different from them in that they have nothing pathetic or paroxysmal about them infused as they are by the peaceful anticipation of Christ’s return. What inspired work, fluid and dynamic ; one of the most cosmic and spiritual of our time.” Yann le Pichon, historian of Art.

“Gigon’s pictures are often qualified as catastrophic, even morbid or bewildering. Michel Gigon’s art is resolutely religious and Christian. This fact signifies and implies that a painter can dedicate himself totally to service of his faith. In doing so he does not give up his own personality, as is often insinuated, since it is precisely through it that both the visions and their representations are made possible. Simply putting all his strength, all his torment and all his joy in his work, he esteems that the whole of what he is, feels and thinks can find its unity only in God. God in no case demands the sacrifice of the thousand particularities that constitute an individual, but their subordination to a superior order capable of evaluating them according to their true hierarchy. Having said this -and there again, contrary to what one is accustomed to think, and in the case of artists such a fact is evident- a person does not belong less to his time because hi is a believer. To the contrary even, it is through his characteristics as a man of such or such an epoque that he finds his own way (leading him) to God.” Jil Silberstein author and poet, extract from his monograph of Michel Gigon.

“In present circumstances of stagnation or misleading or incertitude in painting, your singular work is more than an interrogation, it is a real provocation and should not leave people of good will insensitive.” Extract form François Mathey’s correspondence with Michel Gigon (†1993), Custodian of the Museum of Decorative Arts, Paris

“Michel Gigon gathers hope amongst the brutal humanities. His painting fascinates and shocks. It invites us to displace our senses, to turn them toward a more interior perception. One must follow the rhythm of the beings who vacillate, pitch, struggle and fade away. Follow the wave of the rocks, the clouds and the flames. The light of God guides our steps. There will remain nothing but ourselves in it so that joy may last. So much the worse if it takes more courage to ‘be’ than to please. Art cannot be anecdotic, it should carry its meaning beyond the explicit. In speaking to the soul which burns in us, Michel Gigon invites us to live better. In the lineage of painters inspired by the sacred, Michel Gigon is a contemporary artist outside convention.” Henry Gama.

Michel Gigon's stained-glass windows in France

North of France

• Pas-de-Calais Courset, Chapelle du foyer de charité
• Pas-de-Calais Saint-Omer, Chapelle de la Malassise « Ecole »
• Pas-de-Calais Wisques, Abbaye des Moniales « Eglise »
• Nord Aulnoye, Eglise Saint-Eloi
• Nord Haumont, Eglise Saint-Michel
• Nord Mont-des-Cats, Eglise paroissiale

Paris area

• Yvelines Andrésy, Parish church
• Yvelines Bois d’Arcy, Parish church
• Aisne Château-Thierry, Saint-Crépin church
• Val d'Oise Hodent near Magny-en-Vexin, stained-glass windows for an old monastic farm

In Normandy

• Seine-Maritime Le Havre, CES Viviani, dalle de verre
• Calvados Goustranville, Parish church
• Manche Bricquebec, Abbaye Notre Dame de Grâce
• Manche Canville la Roque, Eglise Saint Malo (to see painting « Transfiguration »)
• Manche Cosqueville, Parish church
• Manche Tamerville, Parish church

South of France

• Lot Bovila, Parish church
• Lot Rouillac, Parish church related to Montcuq
• Lot Saint Geniez, Parish church related to Montcuq
• Bouches-du-Rhône Aix-en-Provence, Chapelle du séminaire
• Alpes-Maritimes Saint Honorat island, Lérins Abbey

And Also

• Ardennes Dom-le-Mesnil, Parish church
• Charente-Maritime Saint-Sauvant, Parish church
• Eure-et-Loir Dreux, school of la Sablonnière, stained-glass window and mosaic
• Morbihan Arzal, church of Lantierne

• Revue Vitrea: Vitrail - Verre - Architecture - Le vitrail français moderne

Revue du centre international du vitrail - n° 4 - 2eme semestre 1989 ISSN 0991-0131 Page 52: Les peintres et le vitrail

About Michel Gigon

• Monograph "Michel Gigon"

Jil Silberstein, preface from André Frossard (1980).

• Le vitrail français contemporain

Françoise Perrot - Centre international du vitrail - Chartres Edition: L'oeil & la main - La manufacture ISBN 2-904638-17-2 Diffusion LA MANUFACTURE 1984 Page 68

• Le vitrail Contemporain "Comme un chant de lumière"

Jean-Marie Geron - Albert Moxhet Edition: Dexia - La renaissance du livre ISBN 2-8046-0557-4 Collection Références Pages 18, 146, 147

• Revue: Exposition - Un siecle de vitrail en picardie

association Monuments de picardie April 1987

• L'Homme nouveau - Number 1411 - December 22sd 2007

Pages 4, 5 Portrait "Un artiste déconcertant" Geneviève Bayle