Wealthy Post-Impressionist Painter, Jean Paul Beattry, Dead in France at Age 57

Online, April 6, 2015 (Newswire.com) - Jean Paul Beattry, the wealthy French artist known for post-impressionist painting and Rodin-influenced sculpture, died unexpectedly Sunday evening at one of his homes in Aix-en-Provence, France after a brief illness, according to gallerist and curator of his estate, Eve Matisse-Devraux.  He was 57.        

Beattry made his name in the early 1980's as feminist post-impressionist. Inspired and influenced by female artists, including collaborator, Gabrielle Bellocq, and mentor, Marcelle Bergerol, Beattry was hailed by Truffaut as "Monet with a message" at just 20 years old, and became the youngest painter to be named Montmartre's  "Artiste Lauréat," an honor the reclusive painter declined.    

Having made his fame in painting, Beattry shifted mediums in 2008, and focused his artistic energies on neo-classical sculpture, primarily marble.  An example of his work, "Quartres|Femme|Forte," stands in the Marseille Capital Building.  He was also an accomplished writer, and was known for attaching prose-poems and micro-fiction to his paintings, as metacommentary on their visual content.

In honor of his wife, Célene, who died in 2006, he donated 8 paintings (valued at ₣6.4m) to their hometown of Castellane.  He was also an ardent philanthropist, auctioning his own art and donating the proceeds to various social-activist organizations and charities.  His "MisEnScene" triptych recently raised F2m  for an orphanage now being built in Corbeil-Essonnes.  His life and work will be featured in "Beattryfication," a documentary film to debut at Cannes in 2016.                                                                                                                              

Beattry was an outspoken critic of western-style capitalism and technological obsession, which he perceived as a destructive influences on artists.  He declined to hang his paintings at museums that charged an entry fee, and denied sales to American buyers, including an anti-export provision that applied to all paintings sold after 1994.  He also refused interviews to the American press, and in the late 1990's, using financial leverage, he repatriated a number of paintings from private collectors in America.

His personal collection of paintings will be lent to museums across Europe beginning in spring, 2016.  He is survived by son, Jules Jordan, and daughter, Sabine.