French president’s father makes waves with his art
May 18, 2010 // 1 CommentPal Sarkozy’s computer-assisted artwork toured eastern europe and the middle east
Pal Sarkozy is the 82-year-old father of French President Nicolas Sarkozy, but he is more– a painter, and an outspoken controversial figure in France. Last February, Sarkozy père joined with a German computer artist for a show of joint art creations in the capital of his native Hungary.
“Out of Mind” was the title of the exhibition of more than 80 pictures by Sarkozy senior and his long-time colleague, computer artist Werner Hornung, The show was held in the Abigail art gallery in downtown Budapest and was a big hit, drawing serious art enthusiasts and the curious as well. Five or six pictures were snapped up in the first two days of the exhibition by anonymous buyers. After a two-and-a-half week stint in Budapest, the show went to Szolnok, near Sarkozy ‘s home village of Nagybocs, then to Cairo, Paris and finally Marrakech.
The pieces displayed included original drawings by Sarkozy senior and around 50 “giclee” art prints jointly created by him and Hornung and were selling for prices between 3,000-14,000 euros (4,120-19,220 dollars at the time) apiece. Giclee prints are ink-jet-based digital prints that are nearly indistiguishlable from the original in many cases.
Pal Sarkozy, who worked as a graphic designer until he retired in 1995, provided the original sketches, which Hornung then digitalised and manipulated on his computer. Sarkozy then took back the images and worked on them again using real paint, and the final images were then scanned back into the computer and printed off in a limited edition.
How does Sarkozy senior find his inspiration for his fanciful images? “The most important is to find the idea, then I do a drawing, which goes into the computer. Then we start putting in the colors and adding the backgrounds. After the picture is assembled, I paint on it some more,” Sarkozy said.
The French president’s father has been earning a living as a visual artist his entire adult life. He left Hungary in 1948 and made a living with his drawings, before becoming a graphic designer in an advertising company.
Two pieces in the show were not for sale, however: a portrait of Nicolas Sarkozy which the father presented to the subject, his son, when the latter was elected president; and a portrait of Carla Bruni, which was a wedding gift to the presidential couple. Apparently the Sarkozys of the Elysee Palace loaned these back to the artist, interesting in the light of rumors of a longtstanding rift between father and son.
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