Jean Starck (born 1948) Jean Starck (b. 1948) Dyptique, Acrylic on canvas depicting a bull Circa 1990 Dimensions: H: 130; W: 197 cm A major figure in the French underground, in 1979 he co-founded the "Art Cloche" movement, which grew out of a revolt by homeless people who took over an abandoned building in the 14th arrondissement of Paris, where bombs had been stored during the Second World War. The initial occupants were joined by a first wave of artists without studios. Workshops were set up as other artists from abroad moved in, looking for a place to paint. For almost a decade, this first post-modern art squatting movement would give rise to a new art form that was heteroclite, heterogeneous, poetic, anti-establishment and insolent, and with which Jean Starck would certainly be associated. The first works of primitive urban art were created. Jean Starck used a technique known as cut up, which consisted of taking fragments from the works of other squatters and assembling them in a patchwork. Thanks to the dissonance resulting from the variety of styles and materials, he has managed to reduce the unity of design so dear to traditional artists. The materials used are modest, of course, since they are usually salvaged, the artist being a purifier of society's waste.