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Presentation

Yann Christophe Lemaire (YCL) is French. He received a traditional education in graphics and design, and then worked for 20 years as both artistic director in advertising and graphic designer in publishing. This work continues to be his inspiration.
In 1997 he met Alain Ducros, a famous book author and speaker on Japanese Netsuke & Sagemono. He became enthralled by these Netsuke, miniature images of nature. As the years passed, he studied the subject through exhibits, auctions and published works..
In 2004 he began to design Alain Ducros’ latest book , « Promenade dans l’art japonais » based on the collection of Netsuke and Inro by Marco Cuturi (see links).
He discovered many pieces of great quality signed by the masters Netsuke Shi such as Masanao of Kyoto, Ikkan, Tomokasu, Mitani Goho… He was required to hold them, to study them and worked on the book for several months.
While YCL can’t imagine comparing himself to these illustrious predecessors, the desire to tackle the raw material was too strong to resist. Thus the first mini sculptures began to take shape. First in clay, then boxwood and in fossilized ivory.
YCL learned sculpture in his youth at the “Arts Appliqués” school, but hadn’t used his training in 20 years. Thus without any formal technique, the first works were born, inspired by traditional Japanese themes (rat in a ball, … see website). Now the technique is considerably better.
These small works remain a focus of YCL’s who, while improving his technique and equipment, is working on exploring new themes and perfecting his creations.