Jean-François DUBREUIL (1946) Quantitative reading of an information medium "LE MONDE N°15634 - SERIE QKR1", 1995 Diptych 3/5/75 Acrylics on canvas and cut-out. Signed on the back with labels describing the work by the artist. Label Galerie Lahumière, Paris. H : 47 cm; W : 64 H : 47 cm; W : 24 Label on the back of the painting with the following indications: Analysis of the UNE 'cross-references Each element corresponds to a section: - 1st section: 32 pages - 2nd section: 'initiatives section': 12 pages Born in 1946, Jean-François Dubreuil has been constructing his paintings since the 1970s on the basis of printed news media, weeklies and especially dailies (regional, national and foreign). Each painting is a plastic translation, not of the content of these newspapers, but of the surfaces occupied by the content. The starting point for this work is, if not figurative, at least highly referential. In this case, we're talking about printed news media, weeklies and especially dailies (regional, national, foreign). Each painting is the result of a plastic translation, not of the content of these newspapers, but of the surfaces occupied by their sections, either the front page or the entire publication. Colour responds to the same types of constraints. Basically, an unchanging grid: black for photos, grey or white for everything that is not highlighted by the other colours. The recurring element in his compositions since the beginning of his artistic activity is red, the same pure cadmium red that marks the location of advertisements, the signposting colour par excellence, and which runs like a thread through all Jean-François Dubreuil's work. Other colours may be superimposed on this chromatic minimum, their function determined by the series in progress and their order determined by drawing lots. Faithful to the agreed protocol and to the scale of the different spaces that compartmentalise the surface, he juggles between system and chance, between accepted constraints and the surprise of the visual results, savouring the freedom offered by the process worked out once and for all. For Jean-François Dubreuil's work is rooted in duration and the passage of time. His work has been the subject of numerous exhibitions and can be found in museums such as the Musée Matisse, the Espace de l'Art Concret in Mouans-Sartoux, the Museum im Kulturspeicher in Wurzburg and the Arithmeum in Bonn, the Stadtgalerie Klagenfurt in Austria, the Fonds National d'Art Contemporain in Paris and several Fonds Régionaux d'Art Contemporain, as well as in private collections.