Jean Detheux

Born in Belgium, Jean Detheux received his academic training at the Académie Royale des Beaux-Arts de Liège. Immigrating to Canada in 1971, he taught at various art schools in Canada and the U.S. He has exhibited his paintings and drawings in solo and in group shows, in Europe, Singapore, Lebanon and the Americas. His work can be found in many private and public collections. He has also given numerous talks about the phenomenology of vision and the process of creation (member of the Husserl Circle in 1981), he now lectures extensively on subjects such as "Animating in a different key" (in French and English). He has written, in English and French, many articles on art and animation, reviews of festivals, symposiums, books and software, published by Animation World Network, Sage Publications, International Journal Arts and Technology, The Wig and more. After nearly 4 decades of dedicated work with natural media, sudden serious allergies to painting materials forced him to give up "real" painting for digital technology (in 1997). This brought him almost "naturally" to animated film ("time-based art"). He has since made numerous films (with the National Film Board of Canada and with many composers such as Jean-Philippe Collard-Neven, Jean Derome, Michael Oesterle, Hubl Greiner, Thierry Van Roy, Wilfried Jentzsch, Pierre Jalbert, Mikel Kuehn. Jean René, Benjamin Irwin and Michaela Eremiasova, worked with the Quatuor Bozzini, the Quatuor Danel, the Eastman Triana, the Pittsburgh New Music Ensemble and the Quadro Janas ensemble). His films which are regularly appearing at film and animation festivals around the globe. His films are also screened during music festivals, often with musicians performing the music. He also takes part in real-time performances, either as solo visual artist, or in collective improvisations (as with filmmaker Pierre Hébert in a "four hands in the same frame" setting).