Film UbuWebJacques Halbert (b. 1955)
Charlotte Moorman Performing Yoko Ono's "Cut Piece" (1982)
Jacques Halbert was born in 1955, in Bourgueil, in French Loire Valley.
He painted his first cherry on a blue background in 1974. This sign followed his artworks till now. At the end of the 70’s, he left France for living in USA. In 1976, Jacques Halbert became known in going to Parisian openings dressed as a pastry chef with a crate containing cherry tarts and small cherry canvases. Henri Jobbe-Duval invited him to participate to the FIAC. He created La Galerie Cerise, a tricycle turned into a traveling gallery. La Galerie Cerise became his itinerant artwork. In 1985 he opened The Art Café, a restaurant and night bar in the East Village in New York. The artistic scene met there regularly : Jeanne-Claude et Christo, Olivier Mosset, John Armelder, Jeff Koons, Andy Warhol etc... Jacques Halbert organized there many exhibitions in collaboration with the art critics Alan Jones and Pierre Restany, and with the artist Dorothée Selz. Jacques Halbert edited The Art Cafe Review. At the beginning of 90’s, he is the co-founder of The Artarget Association in Florida which promoted the contemporary creation. In 1999, he opened The Magnifik Gallery in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He organized around twenty exhibitions with international artists : Carolee Schneemann, Olivier Mosset, Ben Patterson, Ben Vautier, Alison Knowles, etc... He left New York after sept. 11. Since 2002, he lives and works in Candes Saint Martin in the Loire Valley.