Amazing contemporary digital artists with Jean Arno? Born in Paris, raised in Bordeaux and Nice, South of France, Jean Arno’s poetry is influenced by French classicism and ancient Greek philosophy. Growing up in the house of renowned professors, since young age Jean was surrounded by the greatest figures in the world’s literature. Jean has studied philosophy and literature in Stanford University, which allowed him to develop his own style over a decade. With this new poetry book, Trophies, he is bringing back a sophisticated style and depth of the thought in form of short aphorisms. Jean is also producing digital art and philosophical pieces which complements his portfolio. See additional information at Jean Arno artist.
The human being is called towards these summits, which he feels called to create : “It is up to us to change into Destiny the forces of which our being is composed (…) so that in the unity of the work triumphs all the immensity of the worlds that we carry”. In each poem, a humanist faith emerges with this ideal of a being capable of overcoming himself—of creating beyond himself : “O, indefinable visions / Of a heart, heroic and pure ! / O, inexhaustible fountain / The source of all our future ! ».
This idea, dear to Jean Arno and already developed in the hidden preface of his poetic and cryptic work The Trophies, is taken up here in its artistic dimension. It is therefore not surprising to see the Astrée collective invade the Art & Above Meta-gallery with its futuristic, surrealist, and symbolic NFTs. It seems that artists are now masters of their works and of an art that has been able to put the latest technological tools at the service of the deepest artistic visions, not to satisfy an aesthetic fashion, but to metamorphose and overcome itself. For art lovers, from now on the illustrious Boring Ape could be replaced by Jean Arno’s Prometheus or The Liberated Man—the phenomenon of the exhibition.
What forms will the arts take in the digital universes now commonly called the Metaverse? NFTs (non-fungible token) artwork, protected by unique numbers, is now unequivocally the future of the arts. For example, suppose the punk-geek universe dominated the NFT art market in the 90s and 2000s with its video game, comics, manga heroes, heroic fantasy, and science fiction. In that case, it is now competing with artists who produce the new art of the 21st century. Such art includes satirism like Bansky’s iconic street art, with its strong criticism of capitalism and mass public manipulation at the hands of politicians and the media.
Could you tell us more about your background? My background is atypical. I was lucky enough to be raised in a family that valued love and thought in all its forms of expression: philosophical, scientific, and artistic. I was a bright student, but I was reluctant to follow the rules of a school that I found uninteresting and outdated. I loved to read and create. I considered that I had more to learn from Homer, Plotinus, Horace, and Shakespeare than I did from this school. The classes Préparatoires aux Grandes Ecoles proved me wrong. Two teachers there changed my life. They pushed me to examine my thoughts and gave me the keys to express them. From that moment on, I wrote with more regularity. See extra information at Jean Arno poetry.
The game is worth the candle: new fragments appear when one manages to elucidate the mystery: “Every soul that darkness stirs up digs the world with such a stubbornness that chasms blossom with stars of unknown splendor.” When it is not the pleasure of the “game” or the Orphic enigma which carries away the heart of the reader, it is the philosophical accuracy of the subject (“In our reasons murmur/Mysteriously/the eloquent speeches/of our obscure passions”) and the symbolic and Parnassian beauty of the tamed verse: “In her eyes of sapphire / Full of light and clarity / Desires lose themselves / In avid immensity).” When one loves great literature and philosophy, one can only be conquered by this monument of splendor.