One of Jean Jullien's works from his new show. Image courtesy of Jullien's Instagram

Jean Jullien's hand-made tribute to the weekend

The French artist and illustrator teams up with his brother for a show dedicated to introspection and slowing down

The French artist and illustrator Jean Jullien seems so prolific, it's hard to believe he ever takes a day off. However, Jean's new exhibition, which opens in France today, certainly suggests he knows a thing or two about leisure time.

Jean is staging the exhibition with his brother, the animator and composer Nicolas Jullien, at the Slika gallery in Lyon. It's called Le Weekend, and it's a dreamy take on work-free idleness.

Over the past few years Jean has created everything from t-shirts to restaurant branding to an excellent line of children's books, and he isn't afraid to include some of this more commercial material alongside conventional fine artworks in this show.

 

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The exhibition centres on a bucolic, rambling animation the brothers made together, but also includes oil paintings, skateboards, clothing, sculptures, songs and comic strips. Sounds like a lot of hard work has gone into it all, even if the common motif among it all is, according to the gallery, slowness and introspection, as well as a certain hand-made quality. 

 

Another work from the show. Image courtesy of Jean Jullien's Instagram
Another work from the show. Image courtesy of Jean Jullien's Instagram

"At a time when technical reproducibility distorts the sacred and unique character of a work," Slika says, "the Jullien brothers question together on this discourse by using their respective skills with brilliance." To see more of those skills, take a look at Jean's books here.