THE THREE SACRED BOOKS FOR PEACE

Alain HUSSON-DUMOUTIER

UNESCO Artist For Peace

Alain Husson-Dumoutier

Edition LB Story
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« It is my hope that all those who leaf through this book and its 109 paintings will steep themselves in its spirit and recognize themselves in the Other, who is so close, so that; together, they will wish in turn to convey this message from their common forefathers to the world” Koïchiro Matsuura, General Director of the UNESCO

After several exhibitions in Paris at Espace Alberica, The Church of Madeleine and the Jewish Community Centre in 2003-2004, a large international exhibition is planed in 2005 in UNESCO headquarters in Paris.

While waiting for this international exhibition, a catalogue of 160 pages including 109 paintings of the Three Sacred Books for Peace is out, with sentences in French and English from the Three Sacred Books. This work is under the support of UNESCO, the French ministry of culture and communication and Haut Conseil à la Francophonie.

ABSTRACTS OF THE TEXTS IN THE CATALOGUE

Preface by Koïchiro Matsuura, General Director of the UNESCO

“Some years ago, Mr Alain Husson-Dumoutier was given the title of "UNESCO Artist for Peace". Artists play an important part in building a lasting peace. They offer us another channel of dialogue, through "seeing" and "feeling". The dialogue between cultures and spiritual traditions must not be confined to the theorizing of intellectuals or to the action of decision-makers, whether political or religious. It must also have an aesthetic and ethical dimension and be guided by a transcendental sense of human community reflecting a unique aspiration towards inner peace and collective fulfilment.

Alain Husson-Dumoutier’s light -filled paintings express this transcendental sense. They encourage us to seek a better understanding of what unites us through the message contained in the Sacred Writings of what he calls the “religions of Adam”. In these troubled and uncertain times, this message reverberates in us like a call to learn more about our own traditions and those of others.
UNESCO warmly congratulates Alain Husson-Dumoutier on this initiative, particularly since it is fully in the spirit of the Organization’s programme on inter-faith dialogue, which forms an essential component of inter-cultural dialogue.
These age-old expressions of faith are an invitation to follow in the footsteps of the patriarchs and prophets whose teachings are the spiritual heritage of us all, especially those who look back to Abraham as their common Father.”

Text by Jean de Bengy, Inspector-General for Creation and Arts Education, French Ministry of Culture

“Alain Husson-Dumoutier’s work is that of a studio artist, in the habitual meaning of the term, and yet it is not the work of an artist whose studio encloses a world, his world and that of his works; he is an artist of his age since he pursues other objectives, performs other acts, through a symbiosis in which art incontestably dominates.
He is a complete artist in that, thanks to techniques and manners, materials and methods he has explored those complex developments which, in the continuity of accomplishment, the presence of doubts, the ebbs and flows of success, the burden of failures and the ecstasy of potential, are the very foundation of an artist’s work.

Having succeeded in extracting the essential, going far beyond what is called - to oversimplify somewhat - maturity, having attained that state of knowing that combines intellectual knowledge, artistic knowledge and know-how, he has realized the dream of all artists who, having created a work, now possess an oeuvre.

An oeuvre that is sufficient in itself, but that can only exist thanks to what has gone before it, able to bring something to a close and yet the opposite of an ending since it is not only a return to what was but also an opening on to what will be.
Certain of being able to attain that goal, knowing that the time had come, Alain Husson-Dumoutier chose a subject that is both austere and perilous, the holy or sacred scriptures: the Bible, the Gospels and the Koran.

All the varieties – and sometimes the lack – of Faith lends these writings a different texture; they may, or may not, determine acts of living, or lay down ways of thinking, while at the same time they may be nothing but lines in sumptuous works of literature. Yet no other words have shaped people’s destinies to the same extent. They are an essential part of our history and a decisive force in our future.
Another approach was also called for, that of a painting which, albeit fitting into the history of abstraction, alters it root and branch; by means of the logics of abstraction it is not so difficult to define similarities and oppositions, rapprochements and splits; it is common practice
to locate all artists at the heart of their apparent filiations. Yet Alain Husson-Dumoutier does not allow himself to be the object of this game and apparently cannot be more easily pigeonholed in geometric abstraction than in lyrical abstraction.”

Click on pictures to open details from each book