A word from Claude Eric lachaud

 In the beginning

As a thirteen year old boy, I was very impressed by the allegorical power and aesthetic of the 1968 revolutionary movement in Paris. The boldness, the freedom, the constructive disarray left no doubt in my mind this was "Art". Art hurts and soothes. Uniqueness challenges. If I do everything right I infuse each of my pieces with these powers.

In France

After the lycee, I studied at the Ecole Superieure D'arts Modernes in Paris. It was very fashionable to spit on the Fine Arts. My teachers, many painters themselves, saw no future in the European art world and rejected the New York scene as an insignificant Imperialist ploy. It was the end of the world. My studies shifted to Interior Architecture and Furniture Design. Finally I dropped out because of the  opportunity to do my military duties in the French Army Photo and Cinema Department. Yet I never stopped painting, particularly large murals resembling abstract comic strips. My other interests at that time combined photography, music and video. In 1981 I moved to the south of France, where, living on a sailboat, I switched to small format works and began mixing the figurative and the abstract.

In the USA

I arrived in America for Thanksgiving in 1984. Following a decade of research, I felt the need to integrate all my preceding experiences. My work became "interactive," allowing the viewer to continually discover new harmonics, to use a musical metaphor. I began mixing different media to produce the visual translation of New York's cosmopolitan life. By blending the unusual and the different, oil, acrylic, pencil, aquarelle and ink, all element strengthened and stabilized with successive coats of varnish. I transcribed the texture and activities of the city.  I became fascinated by the element of surprise I could achieve by painting in reverse on acetate (a clear plastic sheet), whether by itself or with a three dimensional twist using multi layered cardboard, metal wire and eyeglasses. The vibrant primary colors represented a French artist's vision of America. Confronted with such a positive reaction to the EYEGLASSES as stand alone pieces, many New Yorkers live in place so tiny they love art of small format, portable in case of fast escape, I decided to make them more available and a world  by themselves.