Leclercq, Jean
untitled
Jean Leclercq, untitled, 2012, graphite, ballpoint pen and colored pencil on paper, 43,9 x 46,7 cm, photo : Claudine Garcia, Atelier de numérisation – Ville de Lausanne Collection de l’Art Brut, Lausanne
Author
Leclercq, Jean,
(1951), Belgium
Biography
Jean Leclercq was born in Belgium's Liège region. Around 2003, when he was fifty-two, he began drawing at home and in the psychiatric hospital in Lierneux, where he now lives. Systematically starting out from pre-existing models, he redraws portraits of famous men and women found in his dictionary, photos taken from books about animals, and illustrations from children's books. However, the bulk of his extensive output is made up of comic book panels largely inspired by the quantities of Bob et Bobette, Tintin, Spirou and Marvel anthologies he gleans on local flea markets. He reworks the key figures from these comics and adds speech bubbles made up of copied words he "puts down" unread. In 2008 Leclercq began attending the S Workshop in neighbouring Vielsalm once a week.
As a rule he works on big sheets of recycled cardboard, vigorously rendering his characters with ballpoints, felt pens, coloured pencils and gouache in flat areas of pure, vivid tones. Every week he produces several dozen works, which he brings to the workshop in plastic bags. Thus he has become the creator of an oeuvre numbering several thousand items, which are regularly exhibited at events devoted to comics and the work of self-taught artists.