Youri Messen-Jaschin

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Youri Messen-Jaschin in 2016. Swiss Op art artist born in Arosa (1941), active since the 1959s. Youri Messen-Jaschin 2016.tif
Youri Messen-Jaschin in 2016. Swiss Op art artist born in Arosa (1941), active since the 1959s.

Youri Messen-Jaschin [1] is an artist of Latvian origin, born in Arosa, Switzerland, in 1941. He often combines oils and gouaches. He also works in body painting, [2] exhibiting his works in nightclubs.

Contents

Biography

Between 1958 and 1962 Youri Messen-Jaschin studied Fine art at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts (student of Robert Cami) and History of art at the École pratique des hautes études (student of Pierre Francastel), both in Paris.

Between 1962 and 1965, he attended the École cantonale d'art de Lausanne.

He worked with engraver and painter Ernest Pizzotti. [3] He exposed his kinetic glass and acrylic sculptures in Lausanne in 1964. He worked two years at the Center of Contemporary Engraving in Geneva and then in Zürich, [4] where he collaborated with the painter Friederich Kuhn. [5]

Between 1968 and 1970, he studied at the School of Design and Crafts in Göteborg, where he researched textile kinetic objects. There, through his discussions with artists Jesús Rafael Soto, Carlos Cruz-Diez and Julio Le Parc, he became increasingly interested in by Op art and decided to devote all his research to Kinetic art. He started to increasingly integrate movement and geometric shapes in his textiles and oil paintings.

In 1968, he received the first prize for Swiss contemporary engraving art as well as a scholarship from the Swedish government. In 1970, he worked in Hamburg, collaborating with North German artists on monumental projects, and created a kinetic sculpture for Gould in Eichstetten, Germany.

Youri Messen-Jaschin traveled in South America, where he was able to discuss architecture – which plays an important role in his work – and its relations to his own research on movement with architects and artists like Oscar Niemeyer and Roberto Burle Marx in Rio de Janeiro, Ruy Ohtake in São Paulo, and Clorindo Testa in Buenos Aires. In 1984 in Caracas, he staged theatre and choreography of his own works at the Ateneo, the Eugenio Mendoza Foundation, the Asociación Cultural Humboldt (Goethe-Institut), and at the Alliance française.

After a stay of several months in New York, he returned to Switzerland in 1971, where he took up residence in Bern, where he lived for eleven years. During his stay, he frequently exhibited at the Kunsthalle and other local museums. He currently lives in Lausanne, Switzerland.

In 1981, during a stay in Buenos Aires, Youri Messen-Jaschin met the artist Gyula Kosice, co-founder of the Arte Madí movement. Kosice, impressed by the perceptual and geometric dimension of Messen-Jaschin’s work, symbolically included him in the Madí circle — a recognition later recorded in a publication by Kosice himself.Gyula Kosice, ‘‘Arte Madí’’, Buenos Aires: Ediciones de Arte Gaglianone, 1982, p. 178. ISBN 950-0004-18-6.

He participated in many international exhibitions. His works are in private collections, in national and international museums.

Variation on ZN spin model'' is a large-format Op Art screen print (180x180 cm) created by Youri Messen-Jaschin in 2021 and printed on aluminum. It is based on a visual interpretation of spin symmetries and optical vibrational structures. Variation on Z N spin model.jpg
Variation on ZN spin model’’ is a large-format Op Art screen print (180×180 cm) created by Youri Messen-Jaschin in 2021 and printed on aluminum. It is based on a visual interpretation of spin symmetries and optical vibrational structures.
Youri Messen-Jaschin painting Blue Two in his Lausanne studio (2020). The artwork belongs to a private collection. Blue Two, 2020.jpg
Youri Messen-Jaschin painting Blue Two in his Lausanne studio (2020). The artwork belongs to a private collection.

Selected Works

Exhibitions

...

Quantique (2022), silkscreen on linen canvas (200 x 170 cm). Unique edition. Winner of the 2022 Talent Prize Award in Los Angeles. Optical illusion changes with angle, inspired by quantum dynamics. Quantique.jpg
Quantique (2022), silkscreen on linen canvas (200 × 170 cm). Unique edition. Winner of the 2022 Talent Prize Award in Los Angeles. Optical illusion changes with angle, inspired by quantum dynamics.
Spiral (2012), oil painting on wood (177 x 177 x 16.3 cm). Exhibited in Moscow (2016), featured on Channel One Television. Collection: POPA Museum, Porrentruy, Switzerland. Spiral 2012.jpg
Spiral (2012), oil painting on wood (177 × 177 × 16.3 cm). Exhibited in Moscow (2016), featured on Channel One Television. Collection: POPA Museum, Porrentruy, Switzerland.
Detail from Spiral (2012), oil painting on wood. This close-up reveals the complex optical structure and vibrant contrasts typical of Youri Messen-Jaschin's Op art. Spirale 2012.jpg
Detail from Spiral (2012), oil painting on wood. This close-up reveals the complex optical structure and vibrant contrasts typical of Youri Messen-Jaschin’s Op art.
Dance Line (2001), Op art, oil painting on linen canvas (180 x 180 cm). Collection of the POPA Museum (Op art and Illusion Museum), Porrentruy, Switzerland. Dance Line.jpg
Dance Line (2001), Op art, oil painting on linen canvas (180 × 180 cm). Collection of the POPA Museum (Op art and Illusion Museum), Porrentruy, Switzerland.
Pleiades (1977), outdoor mobile sculpture made of plexiglass and perlon thread. Exhibited in various international shows and referenced in several publications. Pleiades II 1977.jpg
Pléiades (1977), outdoor mobile sculpture made of plexiglass and perlon thread. Exhibited in various international shows and referenced in several publications.
Perpetuum mobile III, a three-dimensional Op art installation. Static but appears to move through viewer interaction with light and angle.
Vibration I (1980), Op art sculpture in steel, plexiglass, and perlon thread (400 x 500 x 700 cm). The threads capture sound through electrodes and convert their vibrations (e.g. ants, water drops) into concrete music via computer. Private collection, USA. Vibration I 1980.gif
Vibration I (1980), Op art sculpture in steel, plexiglass, and perlon thread (400 × 500 × 700 cm). The threads capture sound through electrodes and convert their vibrations (e.g. ants, water drops) into concrete music via computer. Private collection, USA.
Detail of the Op art sculpture Vibration in steel, plexiglass and perlon thread. Electrodes translate sounds into concrete music. Private collection, USA. Vibration I 1980.jpg
Detail of the Op art sculpture Vibration in steel, plexiglass and perlon thread. Electrodes translate sounds into concrete music. Private collection, USA.

Exhibitions

Books and magazines

Awards

Encyclopedic

Theater

References

  1. "Mueller Science - Ausländer in der Schweiz - famous foreigners in Switzerland". Muellerscience.com. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  2. "Youri Messen-Jaschin Bodypainting on Absolutearts". Absolutearts.com. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  3. "Ernest Pizzotti". Studiopizz.ch. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  4. Messen-Jaschin, Youri (21 April 2017). "switzerland - xylography - woodcut - by youri messen-jaschin - 1958 – 1978 -". Yourimessenjaschinbibliography.wordpress.com. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  5. "Friedrich Kuhn (1926-1972)". Press.uchicago.edu. Retrieved 14 February 2019.

Scientific reception

The work of Youri Messen-Jaschin has attracted scientific interest, particularly in relation to its neuroaesthetic effects. A publication from the Max Planck Institute for Mathematics in the Sciences explores the question of whether and how optical art may help relieve or even cure certain mental illnesses: