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The new exhibition at the Yvonne Jean-Haffen Museum
Water is a pivotal element in the artistic productions of Yvonne Jean-Haffen and Mathurin Méheut. It is first of all a working tool used by fishermen, washerwomen and oyster farmers, on whom the two artists take a realistic look. In their paintings, water can appear shimmering and rippling when it feeds rivers, but it becomes threatening when it stagnates in marshes or when it floats in the sky, like raindrops. When it takes on a marvelous, even sacred character, it captivates Yvonne Jean-Haffen who has a particular interest in the miraculous water of Breton fountains supposed to heal or relieve. Water is also the natural element of fauna and flora which invariably nourish the inspiration of the duo of artists: dolphins, fish, and octopuses populate the decorations of the liner L'Aramis imagined by Yvonne Jean-Haffen ; Starfish, shells and corals are put at the service of Mathurin Méheut to accompany the fabulous text of Colette, Regarde, book-album that they composed together in 1929. Water, finally, is the environment in which evolve magical figures invented by Yvonne Jean-Haffen – mermaids and marine unicorns – and by Mathurin Méheut who manages to refresh the traditional iconography of mermaids by painting his famous “pagure women” on a very large canvas.
Unexpected works, atypical in the artistic production of the two artists, punctuate the new temporary exhibition of the Yvonne Jean-Haffen Museum enriched with the poetic texts of the writer Lucie Kervern.
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Yvonne Jean Haffen Museum
103 Quai Street
22100 Dinan
