Jacki Maréchal or The Invitation to a Journey
Jacki Maréchal is a painter who henceforth must be reckoned with, because his universes are constantly being renewed, diversified and deepened in complexity through the subtleties of his compositions and modulations involving lines, volumes, and colours that pour forth with intensity and vitality in amazing richness. His vision is multi-faceted, introducing us to worlds similar to those that the most modern of electronic telescopes and microscopes can reveal to us. He plunges us into the unknown universes that William Blake describes:
To see a world in a grain of sand
And a heaven in a wild flower,
Hold infinity in the palm of your hand,
And eternity in an hour.
Jacki Maréchal’s vision is transmitted to us through paintings which, at first glance, are abstract but which throb with life, pulsing with underlying splendours that he reveals to us through the mastery of his art.
When Jacki Maréchal paints, he unfolds before our eyes, in a series of symbolic visions, the riches of multiple worlds that are part of him and his artistic universe. The titles of his paintings may at times seem disconcerting but their purpose is to call full attention to the mystery of things, beings and the invisible dimensions that lie behind the visible.
This is the shock of wonder I personally receive in the presence of his paintings, and I suspect that they are even deeper in intensity than I have imagined.
Jacki Maréchal opens doors of infinite diversity through which each one of us can take an endless voyage.
He unfolds before us an art that holds an implicit moment of silence. An art that reveals itself gradually and slowly as the eyes of the heart open wide in wonder. The famous lines of the German baroque poet, Angelus Silesius, come to mind:
The light of splendour shines in the depths of the night.
Who can see it? A heart with eyes to look and watch.
( Cherubinischer Wandersmann, V, 12)
Roland Maisonneuve