Youri Messen-Jaschin
Youri Messen-Jaschin studied Fine art at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts (student of Robert Cami). He returns to Lausanne to study at École des Beaux-Arts. With another scholarship awarded in 1967, he pursued his artistic research at The University of Gothenburg.
Op Art stages optical illusions. It’s mathematical; everything is designed, down to hundredths of a millimeter, to mislead the viewer’s eyes into making their brain detect something that doesn’t exist. The image takes on different hues depending on the viewer’s position, the way they perceive it, and the impact it has on one or other part of the brain. Accomplished works of Op Art require an astonishing mastery of freehand working. He explains: “ I calculate each line so that the distances between them, or their thicknesses, create an illusion. The human eye cannot simultaneously take in two surfaces with violently contrasting colors. Similarly, superimposing different interlocking frameworks, first in black and white and then in color, creates the illusion of movement when you adjust your gaze, when in fact everything is static.”
Youri makes stamps – three were commissioned by the Swiss Post.
He’s won a variety of international prizes and is featured on the walls of museums in Switzerland Museum Popa in Porrentruy, Kunsthaus Zürich, Museum of Art and History - Cabinet des estampes in Geneva; Sakima Art Museum in Okinawa Prefecture and Ino-cho Paper Museum in Kochi-Ken, Japan; Angel Orensanz Foundation and Center for the Arts in New York.
(2024 Nina Brissot)
