Painter Jacques Monory dies

The creator of the poster for Roland Garros 1985, passed away at the age of 94.

Roland-Garros 1985 poster by Jacques Monory©Jacques Monory/Galerie Lelong-FFT
 - Myrtille Rambion

French artist Jacques Monory, one of the leaders of the narrative figuration movement and creator of the poster for Roland Garros 1985, passed away on Wednesday 17th October, at the age of 94.

“The colour blue, almost exclusively, was his signature colour, and his photograph-like monochrome canvases create a long panoramic tinged with a melancholy that sometimes veers toward nightmare,” his widow, Paule, said in a statement.  

Having trained at the École des Arts Appliqués in Paris, Jacques Monory quickly developed a passion for photography, which he integrated into his art, namely with his famous monochrome blue backgrounds.

“Film and photography are extraordinarily effective resources. But, as a medium for constant emotion, nothing is better than painting,”

the man himself once said to summarise his artistic thought, which was suffused with the world of film noir.

A representative of the narrative figuration


For the poster he created for the 1985 Roland Garros tournament, Jacques Monory used the three primary colours, applied vigorously from top to bottom. On his canvas – in which certain fans of 1970s tennis will recognise the silhouette and fingers of former player Zeljko Franulovic, who is today the director of the Rolex Monte-Carlo Masters – the painter deliberately opted for Vegas-style spotlight lettering.

After Eduardo Arroyo’s passing on Sunday, we have now lost a second representative of the narrative figuration movement, which was born out of a reaction to abstract art, and the creator of another iconic Roland Garros poster.