Eugene was born in Germany in 1947. Shortly afterwards, his family moved to South Africa, where as a young man, he studied at the Michalis School of Art at the University of Capetown. He continued his education throughout the 1980’s while living in London, New York, and Los Angeles. He last lived in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Establishing a strong following in the California and New Mexico art scenes, Jardin’s work explored numerous themes, including the man-beast interface. Working primarily in fiberglass and resin, his works were often brightly painted, aggressive and mystical. Jardin has been collected by museums, major corporations, and numerous private collections including David Hockney, Jane Seymour, Johnny Carson, Pia Zadora, Jodie Foster, Wolfgang Puck, and director, John Schlesinger. Eugene Jardin died of AIDS in the American Hospital in Paris in 1992 at the age of 44.
Robert Kirsner
_______________

Eugene Jardin, Portrait d’un sculpteur / Rina Sherman
Film d’art Films by Rina Sherman
16 mm, couleurs, 7 min, 1983

Ce film propose un portrait du sculpteur Eugene Jardin, artiste d’origine sud-africaine ayant longtemps vécu sur la côte Ouest des États-Unis. Il est tourné lors d’un retour de l’artiste à Johannesburg, en 1983, à l’occasion d’une exposition consacrée à une série de portraits de David Hockney, Woody Allen, Jodie Foster, et d’autres figures du monde artistique et médiatique.

Eugene Jardin est né en Allemagne en 1947. Peu après sa naissance, sa famille s’installe en Afrique du Sud, où il étudie, en tant que jeune homme, à la Michalis School of Art de l’Université de Cape Town. Il poursuit sa formation tout au long des années 1980, vivant successivement à Londres, New York et Los Angeles. Il réside ensuite à Santa Fe, au Nouveau-Mexique. Ayant acquis une solide reconnaissance sur les scènes artistiques californienne et néo-mexicaine, Jardin explore dans son œuvre de nombreux thèmes, dont l’interface homme‑animal. Travaillant principalement la fibre de verre et la résine, il réalise des sculptures souvent vivement colorées, à la fois agressives et mystiques.

Les œuvres de Jardin ont été acquises par des musées, de grandes entreprises et de nombreuses collections particulières, parmi lesquelles celles de David Hockney, Jane Seymour, Johnny Carson, Pia Zadora, Jodie Foster, Wolfgang Puck, ainsi que du réalisateur John Schlesinger. Eugene Jardin est décédé du sida à l’American Hospital de Paris en 1992, à l’âge de quarante-quatre ans.

_______________

La Cienega Area
THE ART GALLERIES
January 17, 1986 | COLIN GARDNER

Also on display is a series of painted fiberglass sculptures by Eugene Jardin, a South African artist now living in Los Angeles. Jardin’s grotesque fusion of human and animal forms exploits art historical motifs drawn from Assyrian and Greek mythology (hunters and their prey), as well as Etruscan funerary sculpture. The works’ overt primitivism masks an analytical undercurrent, that of expressing emotional states through an ongoing sculptural vocabulary (kinetic distortion, idiosyncratic balance and spatial parameters) as well as such archetypal concerns as power and the subconscious. The work is more successful conceptually than aesthetically, largely because Jardin cloaks his historical sources in an overly accessible Pop sensibility that tends to undermine the integrity of his vision. (Michael Kohn, 313 N. Robertson Blvd., to Feb. 8.)

______________

Photographs of Eugene Jardin by Robert Kirsner

« These Pictures were taken at my house in LA in 1989. He was staying with me preparing of and exhibition at the Couturier Gallery in Los Angeles. » Robert Kirsner, 2021

Press