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Contemporary works
In Auch, the most famous stained-glass windows are those in the heart of the St. Mary's Cathedral painted by master glassmaker Arnaut de Môles, more than 500 years ago. We sometimes forget other more discreet works such as the stained glass windows ofHenri guerin that adorn thechurch of Saint-Orens.
Henri Guerin (1929-2009) is a French glass painter born in the Atlantic Pyrenees and who settled in Toulouse in 1961. His stained glass work is considerable. We count more than 500 works located in religious, civil or private buildings; mainly in France but also abroad (Switzerland, Canada, United States, Japan, etc…).
He had opted for the technique of slab of glass joined to the cement. The motifs presented are not figurative and the artist has placed light at the center of his work:
Light has always been what interests me the most, in calm or in movement with its shadowy accents which give stained glass its specific gravity, measured, contained joy. The stained-glass window is for me like the hands on the face, the light filters between the fingers, space inside for silence. Henri guerin
You can see his works in Auch at the Saint-Orens church, but also:
- 81 route de Pessan to the Carmel Chapel
- 10 rue de la Somme at the Chapel of the Dominican Hospitallers
- 1 chemin du Cougeron at the Chapel of the Mathalin Institute,
- 26 chemin du Barail at the Chapel of “Ma Maison” located at the retirement home of the Little Sisters of the Poor
50 m² of vital
It is a set of 50 m² of stained glass, distributed in 10 canopies which can be found in the Saint-Orens church. Henri Guerin made them in 1969 as part of an order from the parish.
The challenge for the artist was to include these works in a monument of classic style (early XNUMXth century).
The semicircular vaulted nave is widely lit on the right side by four large windows semicircular. On the left side, give four side chapels, the first of which, that of the Blessed Sacrament, is lit by a small rosette, and the other three by narrower windows than those on the right side. On the entrance facade, two windows are partially obscured inside by the gallery: only the bottom panel of each of them is visible from the nave.
Regularly maintained, one of the glass roofs will be F&B in 2015.
sources: Report on the discovery day of Henri Guérin's stained glass windows in Auch on November 26, 2011, Association Henri Guerin et le official website of the artist
For subscribers to the INA site, you can listen to an interview of February 2, 1976 with Henri Guérin by Jacques Chancel for Radioscopy emission.
