Louis Pons was born in 1927 in Marseille. Enduring poverty and battling tuberculosis, at the young age of 21, Pons entered a sanatorium where he remained for over a year. Afterwards, he relocated to the countryside.
Due to his inability to hold a job for an extended period of time, Pons turned to art. Initially, he focused on newspaper caricatures, opting for this medium for its cost-effectiveness and mobility. Though he didn’t receive any formal training, he regarded Hercules Seghers, Rodolphe Bresdin, Louis Soutter, and Wols (Alfred Otto Wolfgang Schulze) as his artistic mentors.
In the 1960s, Pons was afflicted with severe eye problems and migraines which hindered his ability to draw, an art form that required intense concentration and strained his eyes. As a result, Pons’ drawings were reduced to the intricate images he adorned on envelopes or letters, often narrating the adventures of a beloved bird or rat, “Snop.”
This motivated Pons to shift his focus to assemblages. Perhaps, it was in his chaotic studio, established when he achieved financial stability, where the idea of assembling objects was born. In his studio, items sat together in a muddled yet harmonious mix and it was the artist’s intervention that facilitated their unlikely union.
In 1972, Pons’ longtime companion passed away. The following year, he relocated to Paris, where he continued to hone his craft of assemblage.
www.ftn-books.com has 1 Pons title available.
