200 x 265mm, 120 pages, Colour printing, Perfect bound, Hardcover, 2025

The first in a series of books dedicated to Jean Jullien's paintings, this book uses paper formats to contrast the artist's preparatory notebooks with exhibition views of his paintings of Mediterranean environments.

"Mermed" is the first chapter of an artistic odyssey which sees Jean Jullien make a stopover at the Galerie Masurel.

Charged with a profound emotional dimension, his paintings' itinerary starts out in the Bigouden region. It is these lands that the artists holds dear which take shape here through their palette of colours and their natural elements. The journey continues along the coast of the Mediterranean, through France, Italy and Greece. The sea gradually becomes a projection screen for an imaginary world of shared forms of knowledge and mythology.

As we continue on our way, we strike out towards a symbolic elsewhere. We can make out references to ancient Greece and its civilisation, which Jean Jullien draws on to connect past and present.

Moving between reproductions of sketchbook pages and paintings, we travel through the pages of the book in the company of the artist and his interpretations of the worlds he discovers, contemplates or dreams up.

A discussion with Martin Bethenod provides an insight into the artist's interests and methods, in particular the link between drawing and painting in his work.

Bilingual edition (English / French)

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