Letters from America, Letters from Italy - Jean-Michel Coulon

Written with care and vivacity, this abundant correspondence punctuates all his travels. Between 1955 and 1956 he traveled to the United States by boat and made a two-month trip to the north of the country from New York to Washington, Boston, Buffalo, Cleveland and Chicago. It is a precious testimony to the America of the fifties on which Jean-Michel Coulon takes a watchful and curious look. He does not hesitate to describe the American way of life by pinning his excesses and his paradoxes, even if he remains fascinated by the irruption of modernity in everyday life.

Between 1960 and 1971, the painter regularly visits Italy and comments on his travels in a lively and sometimes acerbic way. He goes to all the cities of the north of Italy, then to Rome, Naples and along the Amalfi Coast. He discovers the south of Italy, still very much focused on his past, and describes with great wit the strange dysfunctions of everyday life.

You can feel the look of an artist whose palette will gradually absorb the atmospheres of the cities, the light of the landscapes, and the colors of what he sees, whether the imposing masses of American skyscrapers or the varied palette of Italian frescoes, and of course the priceless works of museums.

These letters are a rare and precious testimony that allows to better understand the work of a secret artist who devoted all his life to his painting.