PASSION & SPORT

ERRO

A cosmopolitan spirit 

Erró, Renault Scape (1984), Collection Renault

Erró (1932 - ), born Guðmundur Guðmundsson, is an Icelandic painter. He discovered art in a catalogue from the Museum of Modern Art in New York, and developed a passion for painting at the age of ten. He studied fine arts in Reykjavik, Oslo and Florence between 1949 and 1956. In 1958, he moved to Paris where he met the leaders of the surrealist movement.

 

The artist’s name reflects this cosmopolitan backdrop. After a trip to Spain in 1952, the young artist decided to adopt the name of a village, Ferro. But Gabriel Ferraud, a Brazilian artist living in the Montmartre district of Paris at the same time, felt that this was stealing his limelight. After losing a court case, Ferro dropped the “F” to become Erró.

Biting criticism 

Between1963 and 1965, Erró took part in happenings with his friend Jean-Jacques Lebel. His art took on a provocative air, depicting dictators – of which the 20th century has many, from Hitler to Mao – and Disney characters against a backdrop of violence and omnipresent sexuality.

 

Erró also reviewed the work of Picasso, Léger and Dali in pastiches criticizing consumer and showbiz society. His strongly narrative style enables him to criticize the failings of his contemporaries in a way that is both lighthearted and serious.

Erró, Renault and art 

Renault contacted Erró in 1984. The artist immediately plunged head first into the company’s gigantic image base, gathering input for his creative output. Erró produced a series of emblematic works combining historic painting with the world of the car. A cooperation that left the artist with “the memory of a sort of honeymoon without the slightest hitch”.

 

In 2002, the Atelier Renault devoted an exhibition to the artist, entitled “Erró, Renault and art”. The event highlighted the close links between the work of the artist and the activity of the manufacturer.

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