CURRICULUM VITAE
SAVIGNAC Jean-Paul was born on the 8th of May, 1936 in Versailles, where I
stayed "just long enough to be born". My parents, Raymond &
Suzanne, live in Paris.
My father is a managing director for Nestlé, as well as a painter and
an autodidact… "It smells like turpentine at home…" Through
solo and group exhibitions, today, we can see his paintings at the Museum
of Africa and Oceania, and the Museum of the Thirties in Paris, in government
offices and in private collections. His painting and his palette explode in
brilliant, deep, warm colors; resplendent with the luminosity of his journeys
around the world… At home the walls also display the vibrant and sensual
paintings of Vera Rokline.
1939
/ 1954 - Toulouse… Once World War II was over I attended the Lycée
Pierre-de-Fermat. A teacher of French and Latin helped me discover "composition"
with The Song of Roland, The Iliad and The Odyssey. Maurice Melat, a teacher
of drawing (and a stage designer) showed me, with supporting gestures, the
primacy of the "true" line, of design
and drawing. And there was also the Jacobin church, a masterpiece of Cistercian
architecture that makes you lift your eyes to the sky, the sun and the stars…
And then as well there was the city of Toulouse (Oh! Toulouse!), the city
and its streets, its squares, its eventful history, its deep-rooted culture
and accent! All of this helps enormously, a prodigious benefit in building
personality, in inventing the self and creating identity…
1954 / 1955 - Paris, Montparnasse, the Charpentier Studio, Pierre Charpentier, the director is a great guy…
1955 / 1959 - The "Arts Déco" (Ecole Nationale Supérieure
des Arts Décoratifs). The director, Léon
Moussinac, is a man with immense integrity… Senior year, at Grommaire
Studio… The 4 years at the "Arts Déco" with friends
were infinitely rich, intense and passionate: "We can do it!" Painting,
movies, literature, music, politics and social science… Seminal travels
in Europe, exploration of individuality, of sketching and constructing the
self. The Human Being, his condition, takes shape…
1959 - Designer's assistant for cinema, The Baron of the Lock, based on a book by Georges Simenon, with Jean Gabin and Micheline Presle…
1959 / 1962 - Military service, Geographic Group (Joigny) Cinema Service in the Armies (Paris)…
1962 / 1975 - "My Movie Years"… Director's assistant,
French New 
Wave
Cinema, for Jean-Luc Godard and Jacques Demy. Then Director: Sesame and Nick
Carter and the Red Clover (Eddie Constantine, Nicole Courcel, Jo Dassin).
Producer/Director: What happened in May? and Deputy 73 for which (how wonderful!)
I'm holding the camera, the magical tool, making "my own" pictures
and travelling… through India, Africa, and other places… And then,
one day, the trip is over, around the world, and around movies…
1975 / 1980 - The transition: the return to painting came through
engraving: zinc, copperplate, point, acid, press. Forty pieces in one year.
And painting full time, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, rain or shine, in
windy weather, in storms and hurricanes, on cloudy days and days with bright,
blue skies. Painting with Others, one and all, the day to day, that's to say
the real life, life designed and painted in color(s), with Light, Love, Imagination,
Liberty…
