Art, Love, and Passion - Laurance Rassin

By J.Z. Holden

His work hearkens back to a time when artists ran off to Paris to sit in cafes with Picasso, Braque and Cocteau, talking late into the night with Hemingway, Durrell, Anais Nin and Henry Miller. Talking, drinking, seducing into the early morning; it was a time of art and love and heavy drinking. The licorice smell of Absinthe co-mingled with the thick smoke of Gauloises clinging to hair and clothes. Fumbling with buttons, not caring that they are in the street, yet a few doors from home, eager hands and bodies. The peach colored, early morning light greets the baker who stops his cart, dropping off baguettes and croissants at the local eatery. He turns his head discreetly, pretending not to notice that her skirt has somehow been lifted above her waist. Ah, Paris, ah, amour.

You sense his passion the first time he speaks. There is nothing inconsequential. It all matters. The work. Life. Art. At the Hamptons Designer Showhouse located at 141 Highland Terrace in Sagaponack, the artist has created an atelier off the master bedroom that is a glimpse into his soul. His art is his world - a cardboard desk, covered in paper images, playful bronze sculptures made up off odd pieces of metal, Picasso may have done it first, but Mr. Rassin has made it his own. His work is somehow, a combination of many of the most significant artists of the period - Picasso, Braque, Matisse and Chagal, and yet there is something inexplicably, inescapably, essential and Rassinesque about everything he touches, and there is much that he touches.

In addition to his multi-layered paintings, there are ceramics, sculptures, fabrics, furniture and scarves. It is Rassinworld, and it is a far better world than many another artist might imagine. It is a world filled with light and color, peopled with beautiful women who spy on a Frenchman in Paris, New York, and a fishing village in France. The reason for the spying? This particular Frenchman has found a valuable alien pearl with magical properties. Sound like a new-age Little Prince? Perhaps. Even more fascinating is that there are 300 pieces that comprise an over-arching narrative.

"I studied film making, and I brings that to my art," said Mr. Rassin in a phone interview from his studio in Chelsea. "I wake up at 4am, like a pig farmer. I have a work ethic. You can only paint for so many years. You're on your feet eight hours a day, lifting, moving, it's a workout. That's why I'm driving myself to paint as much as I can, and to create a wider footprint than just paintings, and express myself in wallpaper, ceramics, tile, tapestry and sculpture."

He continued, "In my work I am able to capture the essence. I bring all that I am to the canvas and make hundreds of movies without a crew. Each painting is a movie."

Perhaps our collective nostalgia is based upon a need for simpler times. It is no mistake that a Klimt just sold for more than a small island, and that we seem to seek out contemporary art that expresses a creative LIFE well lived, at the same time that we experience the global realities of war. It is also significant that Mr. Rassin's sensibilities express an allegory, rather than, a more naturalistic form of individual representational paintings, signaling a much needed return to the rich soil of the imagination.

Laurent de Pass, the owner of Galerie Du XXe Siecle in Paris, recently had this to say about Laurance Rassin, "I travel the globe in search of the most important 20th Century masterworks for my Paris Galerie, list of private collectors and museums. Given this, it's rare that I get a chance to see emerging art, but when I do, I am constantly reminded of how little I care for it. Yet, there is one American artist who I have met that breaks clean from this often banal scene; his name is Laurance Rassin. His canvasses are the best combination of old and new school; he is the next wave of great contemporary expressionism."

Mr. Rassin's work is collected by such notables as David Redden, the Vice Chair of Sotheby's, as well as Barbara Cates, a Sotheby's Associate and Konrad Kassee, Christie's International Representative. His work hangs in many private as well as corporate collections, and can be seen through the 27th at RVS Fine Art in Southampton, as well as at the Hampton Designer Showcase in Sagaponack. If you are housebound, log on to: www.laurancetheartist.com, and delight in the sheer joy of his images.