Alain Jacquet was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, France, on 22 February 1939. Jacquet’s first interest was theatre and architecture, which he began studying at the École des Beaux-Arts in 1959. Whilst in Paris, he met and became friends with Jean Tinguely, Yves Klein, Nikki de Saint Phalle and Martial Raysse, and began to explore painting. Jacquet’s earliest canvases, dating from 1961, were brightly-coloured abstractions that explored the boundaries between abstraction and figuration, in many cases incorporating the triangular geometry of backgammon. In 1963, Jacquet began working on his series of Camouflages, which reinterpreted contemporary and art historical masterpieces with advertising icons of the time.
In 1964, Jacquet moved to New York, where at an exhibition of his Camouflages at Alexander Iolas’ Manhattan gallery, he befriended Leo Castelli, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol. Jacquet soon discovered photomechanical transfer and screenprinting, which he swiftly incorporated into his practice. That year, Jacquet began his series of works recreating Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe after Manet, and would later use other masterpieces as source imagery for his work including Manet’s Olympia and Ingres’ La Source. In 1968, Jacquet exhibited at Documenta 4 in Kassel. Between 1974 and 1977, he travelled extensively between Morocco, South America, New York and Paris, representing the French Pavilion at the XXXVII Venice Biennale in 1976. Jacquet continued to work between Paris and New York for the rest of his life, marrying the granddaughter of Henri Matisse, Sophie Matisse, in 1992. Jacquet died on 4 September 2008.
Jacquet’s work can be found in the following selected international collections: the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York; the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas; the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Museum Ludwig, Cologne; Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (MUMOK), Vienna; Museu Colecção Berardo, Lisbon; Musée d'Art Moderne et Contemporain, Geneva; Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris.
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