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Jules Franck Mondoloni (born July 2, 1947) is a French artist, sculpture, painter, book illustrator, photographer and poet who lives and works in Corsica.

Early Life and education

Mondoloni was born in Pitretu, a southern Corsican mountain hamlet, in the comune of Petreto-Bicchisano, His childhood was marked by annual attacks of paralysis until the age of 17 due to an unknown disease (perhaps rheumatoid arthritis) contracted at the age of 3, and treated by a hydrocortisone protocol. He speaks his mother tongue Corsican "pumuntincu". ("Below the mountains" being South Corsica - "Beyond the mountains" being Haute Corse).

He was named Jules (Ghjuliu) in honour of his paternal uncle, Jules Mondoloni, who was assassinated (together with his companion André Giusti in resistance to the fascist invader) on 17 June 1943, which triggered the general uprising on the island and the liberation of the first French department in September of the same year.

After secondary school  in Petreto-Bicchisano, he studied for only one year at the Lycée Fesch d'Ajaccio, then at the Ecole Normale d'Instituteurs in Ajaccio where he obtained the baccalaureate. In Ajaccio, he was one of the rare visitors to the Fesch Museum, where the largest collection of Italian primitives, and various paintings, pillaged by Napoleon's uncle-cardinal, Joseph Fesch, during the war campaigns in Europe..

Jules was then qualified for the Lycée Masséna (1967-68) in Nice, one of the few institutions (alongside schools such as Penninghen in Paris) that prepared young students for the national competition to qualify them to become candidates for the Lycée Claude Bernard, in Paris.

In Nice, Mondoloni and his classmates were required to create free art forms (d'Art Plastiques) and pass a multitude of rigorous tests, required in the academic tradition. They were faced with a limited choice of colours, supplies and materials, paper sizes, in addition to in-depth studies of pencil drawings of various expressions for the study of proportions and light and shade, the reproduction of studio plaster busts, such as the bust of by the neoclassical sculptor Houdon and those of the statues of the "Beau Dieu d'Amiens" ca. 1230, of the mullion of the west portal of the cathedral of Amiens), of the "Head of a Dying Slave" by Michelangelo (Louvre), for example, to the execution of pencil or charcoal representations of living models, as well as gouache paintings from various objects, called documentary studies. A modelling workshop (clay) was also at their disposal.

A competition led Mondoloni to the Lycée Claude Bernard in Paris to pursue his studies for the professorship of drawing and plastic arts. In 1968, Mondoloni was the second of thirty male students to be admitted (the national competition welcomed 30 boys and 30 girls each year). During school holidays, he traveled throughout Europe, thanks to the help of his American friend David Linker, these trips gave him the opportunity to visit Toledo (El Greco), Madrid (Prado Museum), Algeria and Morocco, Rome and Florence (Michel-Angelo Buonaroti), and the Netherlands (Rembrandt, Veermer).

Unfortunately, his dreams of studying painting at school were shattered because the school was only an examination factory. In 1973 Jules left school after he was given the poor grade of 2/60 for the last exam of drawing, But worse for Jules was the anti-Corsican sentiment of his drawing professor whose scornful appellation of  "the Corsican" was a major factor for his disdain of the school.

Nonetheless, while still In Paris, JFM went alone or with the painting professor and his classmates to museums to draw the works of the great masters: Poussin, Vermeer, Rembrandt, Delacroix, Cézanne, Matisse, Picasso, Rodin, Michelangelo.To study history of art from the school program: Egyptian Antiquity, Greek, Asian, the art of cathedrals and Spanish painting. as well as "primitive art", African, American, and Maghrebin.

In Paris, Jules lived in the so named, maid's room, (chambre de bonne), at 56, rue ND de Lorette, Paris 9ème, which looked out upon the rooftops of Paris. It was in that tiny room, after David gave Jules a copy of Alice In Wonderland which he brought back from London, that Jules illustrated with gouache the entire story in thee sketchbooks.

The disastrous poor drawing grade terminated Jules’ studies at Claude Bernard, which drove him back to Corsica where he applied for the teacher's exam. In October 1981, Jules participated in an annual training course for specialists in modern educational techniques at the “École Normale Supérieure de Saint-Cloud”.

Mondoloni became an art teacher in the French National Education system. From 1973-82, after a stint at the Maison de la Culture de la Corse creating theater decoration and comic strips. he spent years teaching in different towns from north to south, from Bastia to Bonifacio. The precarious conditions (he often slept in the corridor of the school, or in an official housing without electricity or hot water) inevitably led him to melancholy and was invalidated by the National Education

During these years, he continued his travels during school vacations throughout Europe (Western Turkey, Moscow, Leningrad, Greece, Venice, Naples), Central Asia (Uzbekistan, Thailand and Vietnam). Being released from his teaching job he continued to travel (Morocco, Tunisia, Greece,

Finally being able to paint as he liked, he organized, with the help of his brother Daniel, various exhibitions, including 2 exhibitions in museums which bought works from him: Filitosa Museum (Corsican prehistoric site), Rimbaud Museum in Charleville.

He went to New York- USA on the invitation of his friend David Linker, ébéniste, antique furniture conservator in Manhattan, Jules also had his first American exhibition in New York.

Mondoloni encompasses a wide variety of mediums, subjects, techniques and styles, including: sculpture, painting, mixed media, book illustrations, photography, comic books and poetry. Jules esteem for his native Corsica is a theme that runs through much of his work. He illustrates the impressive panoramas between sea and mountains, the splendors of Corsica still wild maquis, a true wild reserve of fauna and flora, many of which are endemic as on the islands. Corsca's history, prehistoric era, the Dolmen (Tola, stazzona) and Menhirs (Paladini, stantari, petri ritti), of the prehistoric sites, also the age of antiquity, the Genoese towers, and of its marvellous villages, Bonifacio.

Of particular note are Jules tributes to the artists who have stirred him: Arthur Rimbaud, Alice in Wonderland, the boxers, John Coltrane, Jean-Michel Basquiat, [./Https://www.flickr.com/photos/mondoloniartcollection/16740745237/in/photostream/lightbox/ North Africa,] Tunisia and Morocco. He is also inspired by the life and culture of New York City.

He walks daily for hours with his dog on the beaches and rocky coasts of the Gulf of Valincu and through the maquis paths. *My dog is called Bogu d'a Ruments (we used to call him Mogu (ghost), the black-coated dogs; I replaced M by B as beautiful - "ruments" is the elite Ajaccian way of saying rumenzula : rubbish - puppy of a few days old found in a garbage container, or Amatus Callistus Bogus ( A. C. Bogus, name given by his friend from the Claude Bernard school, André Blanc.

despite the spread of concrete on the coast and the great destruction of natural environments of the Corsican

Evolution of his painting and travels

For my evolution of painting, I didn't look for anything, painting... seemed to impose itself, I found what the painting was imposing on me. But I remember that I always drew, I loved looking at pictures and copying them, I liked books and their stories later: when I was offered an illustrated book I didn't I didn't read, only the illustrations fascinated me. My grandfather father encouraged me when I improvised a color drawing of bouquet of flowers and he asked to keep them, recognized my talent, so there was an artistic taste in the family (these drawings have disappeared). Maybe that's why I illustrated Alice in Wonderland, for example. I was then (so little), but childhood haunted me and still haunts me, in spite of my old age.

Many of Jules' works are untitled or undated. The fact that many pieces do not bear a signature is due to the artist's insistence that his work is itself his signature like the cave paintings of prehistoric caves. The process of adding dates and titles is underway with the help of the artist. With the artist's permission, some of the pieces that were not marked until now have been stamped with the artist's monogram as a sign of authenticity and ownership.

Mondoloni's interest in the human form is at the origin not only of the series of nudes, but also of his modelling. His mastery of the representation of the human anatomy is evident in the various disciplines in which the artist works - including, in addition to the more classical media, the timid essays of comic books. Much of Mondoloni's work is inspired by the great artists of the past and pays homage to their works. Among the artists he particularly values are Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890), Jean-Michel Basquiat (1960-1988), Michelangelo (1475 - 1564).

Tunisia, I had noted a lot of colors and shapes,

Rome alone when I was 15. I spent my time there visiting museums. Lots of antique sculptures, beautiful monuments, the ruins, all that fed my imagination. I had bought paperbacks on painters, a collection I still own.

Firenze, Gli Uffizzi, Michelangelo, the Baptistery, the fabulous gardens, the Arno. Then

Venezia the precious and its frescoes of Tiepolo in cathedrals and so on.

Published books illustrated by Jules Franck Mondoloni:

Filitosa, 1987

  Lumières de granite: la Corse à l'aube de son histoire, 1990

Acquisitions by museums:

Musée Rimbaud:          Arthur Rimbaud à Londres en 1872 d’après Félix Regamey

                                     Verlaine et Rimbaud à Londres en 1872 d’après Regamey

Arthur Rimbaud de mémoire d’après Verlaine 1872

La Tronche machin  d’après Ernest Delahaye 1876

Rimbaud mourant d’après Isabelle Rimbaud

Musée d’Eze:              Portrait de Rimbaud d’après une photo de Carjat (encre de Chine on canvas)

Musée National du Sport de Paris (Parc des Princes):

Khader (boxer)    19½cm x 114cm / 76½ x 44 inches (oil on canvas)

Joe Louis             65cm x 50cm / 25½ x 19 inches (acrylic on paper)

Musée de Filitosa:      Statue Menhir (Reconstitution)

Détail d’un Paladin (Menhir)

Musée de peinture de Bonifacio: Le cimetière marin de Bonifacio

Expositions since 1991:

Corsica:         

Ajaccio:                       Espace Diamant, 1991

La Marge"                  Les portes de Marrakech, 03/1994

Calvi:                          La Poudrière (Jazz Festival 1995) Bonifacio: Hôtel de Ville

Bastia:                        Péristyle de L’Opéra (Musicale de Bastia)

Sartène,                      Centre Culturel Casanova

Filitosa:                      Musée Archéologique (Site Préhistorique) Summer 1992

Porto-Pollo                  Galerie d'art Galera sub rosis Porti-Poddu, 1994

La Côte d’Azur:

Vence:                         Galerie Rimbaud 1991 & 1992

Eze Village:                 Musée 1992

Marseille:                    Palais des Sports (World Championship Boxing Match) 06/05/92

Paris:                          Cirque d’Hiver (World Championship Boxing Match)

USA:                         

Montclaire, NJ            Oak & Ivy The Designer’s Show House 1997

New York City              David Linker Gallery Permanent exhibition

New York Independent Art Fair:  The Plaza Hotel January 2002

Paris:                          Théâtre du Gymnase, February, 2004