Jean-Claude BAUDOT
ELECTROGRAPHIC ART, COPY ART SINCE 1960

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Joseph KADAR (Hongrie), délire Swatchien, 1985 21 x 29,7 cm Photocopieur Ricoh. « 1er Copy Art Show made in Swatch ». Vernissage 20 mars 1985, lancement de la nouvelle collection Swatch, été 85, signée Kiki Picasso « avec les images/montages des délires Swatchiens » de trente artistes au Centre Pompidou IRCAM
Joseph KADAR (Hungary), Swatchian delirium, 1985 - 21 x 29.7 cm Ricoh photocopier. "1st Copy Art Show made in Swatch". Opening reception March 20, 1985, launch of the new Swatch collection, Summer '85, signed by Kiki Picasso "with the images/montages of Swatchian deliriums" by thirty artists at the Centre Pompidou IRCAM/ Archives of expert Jean-Claude Baudot.

[caption id="attachment_4027" align="alignleft" width="300"]Jean-Claude Baudot Jean-Claude Baudot[/caption] EXPERT JEAN-CLAUDE BAUDOT / by Alexandre Murucci

Jean-Claude Baudot is French. Born in 1934. Bibliophile grandfather. Father a doctor, numismatist, and philatelist. In short, Jean-Claude Baudot is a genetic collector. By the early 1970s, he had already been introduced to avant-garde art by two major collectors, Roland de Montaigu and René Ullmann. Psychedelia, arte povera, futurism, nouveau réalisme, geometric abstraction, conceptual art... In 1980, the great French theorist of Copy Art, Christian RIGAL, gave him his book: Le COPY ART (Edition Transform), with a dedication: "Why not your next collection?" Jean-Claude Baudot, who had already been interested in avant-garde postcards for two years (he has more than 20,000), accepted the challenge.
Fascination with THE PHOTOCOPIER, this new creative medium. Artists subverted its initial function of "copying." They had the idea of using it to CREATE original and unique works. He visited the pioneering exhibition held at the Centre Pompidou in Paris from June 26 to September 30, 1980. He discovered the works of Pati HILL, an American artist living in Paris. Then CEJAR (pseudonym of Christian RIGAL), Sol LEWITT and the minimalists, Gil WOLMAN and his "pocket portraits," HUDINILSON Jr and his erotico-corporeal works...
He was captivated by the paradox of the photocopier. "Art Machina." A machine even faster than the camera, which had allowed, a few decades earlier, the emergence of PHOTOGRAPHY, elevated to the status of ART.

COPY ART, also known as XEROX ART, is instantaneous, easy, playful, accessible, simple or complex, elaborate or unpredictable.

For art, it is a revolution. Jean-Claude Baudot dedicated himself to this emerging artistic movement. He collected works, one by one, methodically. And archives as well. The goal: to create a museum. He assembled one of the most important private collections in the world. Perhaps the most important... 1,600 works, often major ones, sometimes masterpieces, by more than 400 artists.
For this year, 2018, he had the idea of commemorating the 80th anniversary of the invention of the photocopier (1938). Numerous exhibitions and events were already scheduled in the USA, Canada, France, Italy, Germany, Spain, etc. "I chose Rio de Janeiro," he said, "with the help of Alexandre Murucci, to present a selection of my best pieces. 200 works by more than 100 artists. This is the first time I am exhibiting my collection. Thank you, RIO and the Hélio Oiticica Art Center."

 
HIS SPECIALTY / ELECTROGRAPHIC ART, the link between Photography and Digital Art It is not a movement. Copy Art is an art form in its own right. It is even a revolution. It could be placed in the spirit of the Duchampian approach—an invitation to a different perception of reality by repurposing the machine-for-work into a machine-for-creation. It would have thrilled Tzara, Arp, Man Ray, Gabriële and Francis Picabia, etc. In this artist/machine dialogue, the photocopier becomes a co-creator. - The artists' creativity suddenly becomes extendable, amplifiable, and transformable. - Their multifaceted inventiveness flourishes by exploiting and distorting the photocopier's potential: its original office function of making a "certified copy" allows them to invent unique works of art. This surprising medium thus contributes to the emergence of a major new art form, Copy Art, in the same way as painting, sculpture, or photography. With the photocopier, artists approach, absorb, interpret—in short, appropriate and renew—all existing artistic movements, from classicism to romanticism, from cubism to abstraction, from futurism to nouveau réalisme, from pop art to surrealism, from conceptual to kinetic art... including collage, assemblage, drawing, and photography. And they are already moving far beyond them with digital technology (mise en abyme, etc.) while keeping an eye on the new technologies emerging on the horizon of the 2020s and 2030s.

Contact

Jean-Claude BAUDOT

12 Passage Bourgoin 75013 Paris
+ 33 (0) 6 15 87 07 05
baudotjc@yahoo.fr

[UFE number : 217]

UFE Jean-Claude BAUDOT