"Jean
Tabaud has a talent that is rare in these times: he views the literal
and expresses it literally. He is not, however, a shallow artist,
for the deeply philosophical reason that in the literal forms of outward
appearance he discerns - and with unusual perceptiveness - the symbol
of many dimensions of the spirit.
"In
other words, Jean Tabaud, as a portraitist of memorable keenness or
as a landscape painter of almost rapturous warmth, is a visionary
who chooses to use the syllabary of the literal, the language of the
familiar form and who does so with inspired mastery.
"In Palm Beach, Tabaud has become
"typed" as an accomplished draftsman of superb pencil portraits.
This has been natural, as the appearance anywhere of such a poetic
talent of subtle understanding, expressed by means that are deceptively
simple would cause a mild furor of approval.
"Jean
Tabaud, however, feels, with more than a little justification that
his ability as a portraitist of the great tradition that starts with
Durer and Holbein, risks confining him to just one of his forms of
expression. Such fears are the earmark of the deeply sincere and powerfully
creative artist and, clearly, such a one is Jean Tabaud. It suffices
to look through his portfolios of portraits or to review his paintings
of Morocco and Majorca to be convinced of this. For if, as the seventeenth
century compatriot of Jean Tabaud, Nicolas Poussin, has said, painting
has as its purpose the delight of the beholder, this result can only
be accomplished through an equal delectation of the artist before
his selected subject.
"Tabaud has this response, whether
in front of the regal orange soils of the Mediterranean, from which
spring olive groves of Virgilean peace, or in front of a dark-skinned
Moroccan woman sitting in a grove, that would have delighted Gauguin.
"As
a colorist of rich harmonies and of sensuous combinations of color
and brushwork, Tabaud has many facets of opulence, which his apparent
literalness may obscure, but which give to his work warm and satisfying
stature.
"In
Palm Beach, thus far, however, Tabaud has been appreciated - except
by the few who have seen his oils privately - as a draftsman portraitist
of outstanding quality. For one thing, his drawings are extraordinarily
brilliant, quite unforgettable for their deep perception of personality,
but just as noteworthy for their clarity of linear means and the fluidity
of expressive line that is as personal to Tabaud as a signature.
"Tabaud
makes his revelation of personality radiate from the source of personal
expression: the eyes of his subject. The individuality then shifts
to the treatment of hair, the curve of lips, and, finally, is crowned
with poetic precision by a pure and thin contour line of exquisite
delicacy. To Jean Tabaud, portraiture is a calling: he has been known
to stop someone of the street and request, with the humility of one
truly devoted to beauty, the permission to portray a face that he
considers memorable - for his own satisfaction and enjoyment.
"His
fluid definition of the essentials of drapery reveals the artist's
response to rhythm, a sort of musical resolution of the aura of his
subjects. Such response is natural, perhaps, to a man who has been
an expert of musical interpretation for many years - a man, who, like
Jean Tabaud, the painter and the delineator of the spirit, has also
known the stimulation of the dance: that original art of man, responsive
to the grander rhythms of the music of the spheres."
