I first acquainted with the work of Jean-Pierre Serrier in the late 1960's. In spite of the lack of undestanding on my part of his work, it intrigued me enough to follow his carreer. We met then in the early 1970's and became friends. I visited Serrier often in Paris, and in long discussions was able to find my way through his work. I was first reminded of Nietzche-every paintings represented a clear, brief, social and philosophical commentary, often as biting as the old German philosopher's

writings. After more time in the company of Serrier, amidst the healthy atmosphere of French bistros and with help of good wine, his own philosophy became apparent to me. In this book I am trying to illustrate the thoughts of a unique mind and a great painter. The texts are my personal interpretations, merely guidelines and not rules. The reaction toward Serrier's work differs from person to person, and so do the interpretations. But at least they make us think. Thomas M. Bayer

Jean-Pierre Serrier was born on October 18th, 1934, in the Montparnasse district of Paris. The district was peopled by artists, intellectuals and other "unconventional" characters who contributed to the formation of young Serrier's interest in the world of Art. Their influence was strong enough to cause him to interrupt his secondary education, and, much to the displeasure of his parents, enter l'Ecole des Arts Appliqués in Paris. He completed his studies there and successfully graduated in 1955

Unfortunately his artistic career was then interrupted for a few years by a war in Algiers. He was drafted, went to Africa, and fought for two years in the Sahara Desert. The experience influenced him very strongly, and possibly created the first basis for some aspect of his work. In spite of the many unpleasant occurences that form the characters of war, he used the opportunity to study it from the artistic side and drew numerous sketches dealing with the well known theme, "the War"

In the beginning of 1958, Serrier returned home to Paris and mixed with the colorful crowd of young intellectuals, actors, writers and poets who represented practically every school of thought and philosophy known to us. The intellectuals in Paris at that time-far more than today-formed a melting pot of ideas, and the execution of those ideas had a traditionnally important part in the cultural and political developpment of France. An environment such as this certainly sharpens the mind's wits

and can more educational in its direct, often crude way than all books read in School.

Besides the intellectual appeal and education that Serrier enjoyed ther, it was also beneficial to his career. He met the prominent editor Pierre Seghers, who bought a number of paintings and also commissioned him to illustrate works of peotry which were published in 1959. His work at that time reflected a universe of chararcters taken from the "Comedia dell'Arte". Serrier was young , growing , learning and developing. He refused to examine his surrondings from an already established viewpoint,

but rather enjoyed destroying the conventional base and pushing things into the absurb. His peculiar sens of Humor - the "humour noir" - always bewildered his friends. To Serrier the commonplace was interesting. Hidden behind and between the objects and happenings of everyday was something elsen, something that had little to do with their conventional, seemingly objective, appearances. He was then not quite able to formulate his observations on canvas. His intelect still hat do analyze

his perceptions and cultivate them where they were ready for execution.