Art Projects

haring could be the title of this next chapter, this new time after twelve years of research on composition. The heritage of five millennia, this wonderful culture of image, needs to express its richness on many plans. All are linked to the same source, the same origin. They become projects, and each finds its place, its partners, and its rhythm.

So much people are interested in the thinking of Renaissance artists, Egyptians and Byzantines... A reflexion is needed to find the good way, the right measure. An educational program is a long term process. A meeting between practitioners in arts, especially in the field of painting, is at the image of this very spontaneous activity. Other things have to be told. In general, the people are less interested in mathematics than in the proofs that they bring. In the end, the global knowledge will be acquired by very few persons : some painters, some architects, maybe some musicians. However, the consequences will be felt by a lot of others.

It was the same during the Renaissance. The level of this practice, in the domain of composition, is so high that we can not be surprised that it has been hidden. For a large audience, the modern technologies are almost necessary to show and to understand this particular way of thinking. Maybe Melencolia was waiting the coming of Photoshop before to reveal its secrets !

For the moment, here are the projects which started to emerge in the year 2014, soon after the book « Dürer et ses Tarots ».

Theoretical Research
The collaboration with the french IREM (Institute of Research in Mathematics Education) has found its apogee in the letter G of Conques tympanum. We consider a physical evidence of Sacred Geometry, a didactic lesson by the Ancients. Furthermore, it closes the false debate about the king role of the Golden Ratio. φ belongs to a complete set of values, including √3. They deal together on a grid through geometry. We can not express anything in music with only one note, even the strongest.

Without speculating overmuch, we can guess that the most important activity of research with IREM will be ludic and didactic. The Geometry with Eyes is, by its simple nature, intended to the teen-agers. Its discovery could be very funny, and this could rehabilitate the image of Mathematics in the mind of a lot of them (they consider that there are more and more numbers and less and less reality in the present teaching). The calculations are for the computers !


Educational Program
The practice of composition is a fundamental teaching in the Schools of Art and Architecture. The transmission of ancient skills can feed the students for their understanding of history, but also in their personal creation in contemporary painting. Step by step, an educational program is building. The role of the professors is essential to prepare the lessons. The sponsors are interested in this project, in which we plan to use new technologies like video mapping.


A University Department
At least four university departments are involved into the study of artworks and architecture. Pure mathematics, Composition (visual arts), Interpretation (Philosophy and Theology) and classification (Art History). We have to organize the process of research into a specific department, which will be the platform of exchanges. « Comparative Geometry ».

A Studio of Icons
One obvious application of the composition study concerns the Icons. They are copied from ancient models without any care of geometry. The so-called tradition loses the precise meaning of symbols to the profit of a precarious narrative. Some elementary questions invite indeed to search another type of preoccupation. Eg why the proportions of the Madonna and baby Jesus are they so different ? The revelation of the sacred geometry solves this query, by the richness of the geometrical vocabulary and also by its coherence.

The Bulgarian iconographer Tencho Stalev invests his great experience in a studio with Yvo Jacquier. They will begin together by the motive of Vladimirskaya. This representation of the Madonna and baby Jesus is, at its origin, a Byzantine painting which has been remade later by Andrei Rublev - according to the opinion of many specialists. Both, perhaps, will enlighten the subject in question.


The story of Venus
The author Guillaume Beys-Salvan is writing a novel in which the composition of the « Birth of Venus » will be the tuning fork. The title of this book will be in french « Le Repentir » - in english “Pentimento”. The french writer received over 150 pages of articles (composition, observation, biography).


Video Mapping
The same subject, the composition of the Birth of Venus, inspires the great artist Dan Gregor for a video mapping production. This new technology of image is impressive and in this precise case, it will be very didactic. The sophisticated lessons of Sandro Botticelli will become fireworks.
Painting & Poetry
This project is quite a surprise. All has started by an historical analysis, a parallel, which surprised Guillaume Beys-Salvan and Yvo Jacquier. They didn't come in Prague by hazard ! The best Painting and the best Poetry have the symbolic in common, with a metaphysical background. These strong axis have seemed obvious to the both when they met.

The painters and the poets could maybe work together in the same space, on the same precise artwork. The first way to know if a concept is reliable is to propose it, and to ask the sincere opinion of the concerned people. At the moment, everybody shows a great interest for this unusual experiment. The feedbacks from the artists and poets foreshadow even a great success. The organisation of this project is in progress.