“Jean-Luc Mylayne: The Autumn of Paradise is the first solo exhibition of this French artist to be held in the Netherlands. For over forty years Jean-Luc Mylayne (1946) has focused on encountering birds in their natural environment and capturing their fleeting presence with his camera. In his images the birds are not only protagonists, but also equal conceptual partners. The exhibition comprises a selection of over forty works made between 1979 and 2008. Using analogue photography, making unique prints, concentrating on the same subject for decades, and devoting prolonged periods of time to the creation of each individual work, Jean-Luc Mylayne has created an artistic oeuvre that is as radical as it is poetic, and which remains unparalleled to this day.” — Huis Marseille

The exhibition was conceived as a visual portrait of the deep conceptual connection between the work of Mylayne and of Van Gogh. Now Mylayne’s work is making the same journey that Van Gogh made over 130 years ago, but in the opposite direction: from Arles to Amsterdam.

N° 25, July August 1980, 33 x 33 cm © Jean-Luc Mylayne

N° 301, March April 2005, 123 x 123 cm © Jean-Luc Mylayne

N° 368, February March 2006, 123 x 153 cm © Jean-Luc Mylayne

N° 450, January February March 2007, 183 x 228 cm © Jean-Luc Mylayne

N° 524, February March April 2007, 228 x 183 cm © Jean-Luc Mylayne

N° 561, January February 2008, 183 x 228 cm © Jean-Luc Mylayne

Huis Marseille and the Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam embarked on a unique collaboration for this exhibition. Simultaneously with the exhibition in Huis Marseille, the Van Gogh Museum will be presenting a number of works by Mylayne as part of the series Van Gogh Inspires, illuminating the link between Mylayne’s work and that of Van Gogh.

The exhibition was created in collaboration with the Fondation Vincent van Gogh in Arles, where it was first shown in 2018. It was curated by Bice Curiger, the Artistic Director of the Fondation Vincent van Gogh in Arles.

Images courtesy Huis Marseille, Museum for Photography, Amsterdam.