Jean-Claude Gaugy

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Born in 1944 in the Jura mountain region of France, Jean-Claude Gaugy heard his own call of independence and left his mountain village for Paris at age 14. There he survived by doing sketches in cafes and soon was invited by the owner of a lavish dining club to paint portraits of customers. During the day Gaugy pursued classical art studies and the Ecole des Beaux Arts, focusing on his great love of sculpture.

One night, renowned surrealist Salvador Dalí entered the dining club and asked to see more of Gaugy's art. Dalí was so taken with what he saw that he arranged for a one-man exhibition of Gaugy's paintings at the Galerie de Seine in Paris. Soon Gaugy's work was being shown in Brussels and Germany. The Soviet government purchased three of his large paintings at a group show at the Museum of Modern Art in Paris, and the young artist was flown by consular jet to Moscow for museum installation of the works.

With an insatiable thirst for knowledge, Gaugy studied during the following years at a number of prestigious art schools in Paris, Rome, Germany and Moscow, as well as apprenticing in England with famed sculptor Henry Moore. In 1966 he immigrated to the United States, a move that led to the development of his trademark Linear Expressionist style.

Three-dimensional sculpture did not command the interest in the United States that it did in Europe. But Gaugy was unwilling to give up his love of carving. Instead, he began creating deeply carved bas-relief wall sculptures in wood. Gradually the carving became less deep and more linear, and color was integrated into the work.

As his art evolved and matured, Gaugy found himself commissioned to create many murals, some as large as 50 feet. Among is clients were the Rockefeller Foundation, New York's Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center, and the National Foundation for Depressive Illnesses, which in 1991 unveiled Gaugy's 30-foot work at the National Building Museum in Washington D.C. In 1994, a major exhibition of Gaugy's carved paintings was sponsored by the government of Luxembourg.

With international recognition and a lifetime of accolades, Jean-Claude Gaugy continues to rise at 4:30 each morning with a singular focus. He brings to his studio all the intensity of an artist whose abiding passion is clear communication through his art.

Just as he understands the creative source to reside in the depths of his being, so his intent is to touch that same pure place in those who experience his art.

"Everything I do, I have to become it," Gaugy has said. "There's no thought; you try to get yourself out of the way when you're painting, and watch things happen."