Born in Nîmes, France, in 1941, Jacques Clauzel was trained at École Supérieure d'Art, Tourcoing, École Supérieure des Beaux Arts, Montpellier, and later École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, Paris under French abstract painter Roger Chastel (1897–1981). From 1965–1973, Clauzel lived and worked in West Africa, first for an Ivory Coast television station and later as an art instructor in Abidjan, Ivory Coast. During this time, he traveled extensively throughout Western Africa, taking photographs of the region while developing a passion for African art. In 1973 he returned to France, where he was recruited a few years later by École Supérieure des Beaux Arts, Montpellier to establish a photography workshop. During this time, Clauzel picked up the paintbrush anew, experimenting with automated drawing, etching, lithography, screen-printing, and aquatinting. Clauzel maintains a monochromatic color scheme throughout his work, arranging grids, lines, and rectangular forms in his minimalist paintings that often juxtapose hard-edged shapes with free-form strokes. Clauzel has cited "silence" as a theme of his works, and indeed if a sound could be associated with his geometrically-contained compositions it would be that of static or white noise.

Clauzel's work has been featured in group exhibitions at Art Elysées, Paris; Musée des Avelines, Saint-Cloud; Monos Art Gallery, Liège, Belgium; Musée Fabre, Montpellier; and many others. He has been the subject of solo exhibitions at Musée Goya, Castres; Musée Paul Valéry, Sète; and Galerie MMG, Tokyo, among others. Clauzel lives and works in southern France.

CEJ