Jean-Luc Charbonneau
Jean-Luc Charbonneau is one of Manchester's best-kept secrets. Now
he is regarded as one of the great masters of Abstract
Expressionism, but sadly, he was completely unappreciated while
alive and, tragically, died at an early age, leaving his
unappreciated paintings as his sole legacy.
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Barnett Newman
Onement V
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He was born in Pinardville, attended public school and wound up in
New York City working as a waiter at night and painting during the
day. He caught the attention of Barnett Newman and studied under
him.
Newman started as a surrealist but his mature styles is
characterized by areas of color separated by thin vertical lines,
or "zips," as he called them. In his first works featuring zips,
the color fields are variegated, but later the colors are pure and
flat. Newman himself thought that he reached his fully mature style
with the Onement series (from 1948).
While studying with Newman, Charbonneau sold several paintings
at small galleries, but never seemed to get the break he needed
— a wealthy patron or a good review at a one-man show.
Actually, he never even had a one-man show and his paintings seem
to garner bad reviews. "Interesting use of color, and I mean that
unkindly," read one review in the Greenwich Village Arts
Newsletter.
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Jackson Pollock
Number 5
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He left Newman's tutelage with a letter of recommendation in his
pocket and his portfolio in a moderately sized steamer trunk, and
journeyed to East Hampton where he was accepted by the
then-acknowledged master, Jackson Pollock. Pollock's wildly chaotic
works are the complete opposite of Charbonneau's almost sterile
canvases.
Pollack's canvases were covered by tremendously active forms. It
seemed the perfect setting for Charbonneau to perfect his craft and
achieve the recognition that his genius, as we now belatedly
realize, deserved. But this was not to be. He was only able to
produce derivative works and destroyed all of his unsold paintings
in a beach bonfire at Georgica Pond.
Once again recognition eluded him, and he again left with a
letter and a suitcase, this time traveling even less distance to
study with Rabo Karabekian, the up-and-coming master of Abstract
Expressionism. This was a trying time of Charbonneau. He was under
a lot of pressure from Karabekian to produce and he was initially
unable to. Karabekian encouraged him to use blue paint since he had
never painted with blue before. Charbonneau claimed that there were
devils in the blues.
Once he opened a tube of blue paint, however, the painter's
creative block broke and produce he did. It was then that he
painted his circle series. Unaccompanied Circles is now
considered to be one of the finest examples of Abstract
Expressionism ever produced. It was shown, and curiously, it
received scathing reviews at the time. "Not only do I believe that
Charbonneau is color-blind," wrote the Village Voice, "but I
believe that he is completely blind." Curiously, Karabekian's "The
Last Temptation of Saint Anthony" recieved rave reviews even
though, to the uninitiated eye, the techniques are similar.
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Jean-Luc Charbonneau
Unaccompanied Circles
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Dejected, Charbonneau again burned all his paintings and
returned to Manchester, living in a cheap studio near the train
tracks, never to paint again. He held odd jobs, eventually winding
up at a now-defunct tattoo parlor on Elm Street. His work there
often didn't match exactly what the customer wanted and this
culminated in his untimely death in 1954 when he was beaten to
death by an enraged customer. (The customer had asked for the name
Lucille to be inked surrounded by hearts and a bottle of Jack
Daniels, but was quite upset to find a solid square field of black
with a single un-inked circle in the lower left corner.)
As for Unaccompanied Circles, an alpaca breeder found it
rolled up in a tube behind a dumpster in Keene in 1971. It is not
known how it escaped the bonfire. The farmer was able to sell it at
auction for 12.1 million dollars. Since so few of Charbonneau's
works survived, its value now is incalculable.
The Cache
The cache container is 5.5 cup Lock and Lock. It will hold
several small trade items and TBs. The final itself is located
within 2 miles of the listed coordinates.
Feel free to run your coords by me before heading out. You can
also email me if you want to discuss your solution or your ideas
about the puzzle. Coordinate update: The original cache area has
been recently logged. I cannot use the same location. You should
add 0.128N, subtract 0.083W from the puzzle solution.
Note: Early logs will be deleted.