“The aesthetics of the works of Jean-Luc Herman depends on an ineffable beauty. Indeed, it is in no way an order, but still less a disorder. This undoubtedly relates to a certain inexplicable happiness, from a somewhat unstable, fragile harmony—in any case free, indescribable. It is lightness and non-violence; it is sweetness and an intense generosity. It merges with the ethics which guides it and drives it toward transparency and translucidity.”

Claude LORENT

Acrylic on canvas with Bété text by Frédéric Bruly-Bouabré (Ivory Coast)

2004, 180 x 120 cm

Wash on chiffon paper

Pasted on canvas

1993 - 2007, 70 x 50 cm

Pastels on chiffon paper

Pasted on canvas

2005, 33 x 25 cm

Pastels on chiffon paper

Pasted on canvas

2006, 70 x 44 cm

Washes on paper

2000 - 2008, 76 x 50, 65 x 50, 65 x 38 cm

8 washes on chiffon paper

Music scores by Jean-Yves Bosseur

2000, 70 x 50 cm

Nothing Imposes

"Since 1994, Jean-Luc Herman’s veils with their wide coloured areas of subtle chromatic variations punctuate the space, drawing displacements, indicating stages. The work belongs to the almost: almost monochrome, almost transparent as nothing imposes, nothing is withdrawn entirely either. It unfolds through an undulating movement, following the breath of the enthralled spectator or the hurried passing of he who seeks elsewhere what he will never find anywhere. If he takes the time to stop, the spectator will be captured by a sort of space-colour-light. The incessant interplay of pigments—transparent liquid inks—with the irregular fibres of the support—a polyester without weave—acts as a filter between the eye and the world: If one withdraws the veil, the world withdraws with it."

Olivier Delavallade, in La Vie, November 20th 2003

Polyester fabric

1995 Tour du roi René, Marseille, France

2002 Sainte-Tréphine - l'Art dans les chapelles, Pontivy, France

2003 Saint-Pierre des Minimes, Compiègne, France

2013 - 2014 Espace Saint-Antoine, Musée de la Vie Wallonne, Liège, Belgium

265 x 150cm