Jacques Monory

Jacques Monory (1924–2018) is one of the major representatives of Narrative Figuration (Figuration narrative), a movement identified by critics as early as 1964, running parallel to American Pop Art. His highly complex body of work has sparked the interest and analysis of numerous intellectuals. Monory asserted a fundamentally dramatic vision of existence, fueled by current events—crimes, violence, attacks—which he transposed into paintings filled with a muted, barely amplified tension.

Although shot through with fragmented and unsettling visions, his works allow a form of paradoxical tenderness to surface. First and foremost a painter, Monory insisted on the sensitive dimension of his practice, stating that his painting “is not dry.” Marked by a deliberately restricted palette, dominated by the blue that became his signature, his work stands apart from any conceptual radicalism. Committed to narration and fiction, he composes enigmatic images resembling film stills, suspended within a narrative that is never fully revealed.