Time has become rarefied in the painter’s work; hats with human faces keep the conversation going, wands with improbable buttons start to move, birds fly and cat-headed characters show bright smiles. In this vibrant atmosphere, there are joyful bouquets of multi-colored flowers everywhere, banquets bringing together crowds of holiday diners, concerts and circuses in full force, amazing rides and faces that reveal the prismatic color of their souls in broad daylight.
In addition to his stained glass paintings, Chapellier also created a number of surrealist sculptures, a whole fauna of wood, bronze and stone, pegasi, centaurs, harlequins and a number of chimeras. He entertains, juggles, condemns. But painting always has the last word: “Whatever some say, I don’t just paint for money. For me, painting is visceral. It helps me live, breathe. I can’t stop painting and will continue to do so until my last breath.”
Today, the artist feels freer than ever: he no longer has anything to demonstrate. However, when he looks at over fifty of his most representative paintings exhibited in the gallery, he cannot help but see again the most brilliant episodes of a full life, his masters such as Callebaut, Knut Kersse, Permeke and Rik Slabbinck, his fertile Provençal period. during which he exhibited on the Côte d’Azur alongside Vasarely, Buffet, Cocteau and even Picasso. Other important artistic encounters will mark José’s journey, starting with Charles Szymkowicz, a neo-expressionist from Karolega whom José Chapellier likes to describe as “today’s Van Gogh”, whose conviction, constancy, “arrogance of colors and this power I often lacked”.
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From the beginning of the 1990s, exhibitions of Chapellier’s works followed each other in the four corners of the planet: Sacramento, Vancouver, Los Angeles, San Diego, Barcelona, Nîmes, Venice, without forgetting Saratoga Springs, where he exhibited six times. sharp flight… Not only does the painter meet the world, but the world meets him: Omar Sharif, Michel Drucker, Jean Reno, Christian Marin, Stone et Charden, Claude Framboisier, Gérard Corbiau, without forgetting his old friend, the baritone José van Dam, with whom he later organized numerous charity evenings in France and Belgium for the fight against cancer or for the benefit of young autists. When asked why he paints, Chapellier’s answer came spontaneously: “To beautify my soul.” Therefore, the artist would never put down his brushes, but decided that Sablon would be the last exhibition in his life. It is no coincidence for him: on May 11, the day the Brussels gallery opens its doors in his honor, he will be 78 years old, the age of reason.