{{Short description|Belgian-American abstract artist and poet}} {{infobox person |name=Jean Toche |birth_name=Jean Xavier Van Imschoot |birth_date={{birth year|1932}} |birth_place= Bruges |death_date= {{death year and age|2018|1932}} |death_place= New York }} '''Jean Toche''' (1932-2018) was a Belgian-American abstract artist and poet involved in New York's radical political art scene.

== Career == Jean Toche was born in Bruges, Belgium, on 15 August 1932. He moved to New York City in 1965, where he became heavily involved in the radical political art scene.<ref name=":0">{{Cite web|title=Jean Toche {{!}} artist memo|url=https://no-art.info/toche/_memo-en.html|access-date=2021-05-27|website=no-art.info}}</ref> In 1969 he co-founded, with Jon Hendricks, the Guerrilla Art Action Group (GAAG).<ref name=":0" /> The group undertook organized actions designed to disrupt the art world, even on one occasion spewing animal blood in the lobby of the Museum of Modern Art.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Revolutionary Instances and Activism in Art Practices at the turn of the 60s and 70s. Two cases compared: Hi Red Center and Guerilla Art Action Group {{!}} LuxFlux|url=http://www.luxflux.net/revolutionary-instances-and-activism-in-art-practices-at-the-turn-of-the-60s-and-70s-two-cases-compared-hi-red-center-and-guerilla-art-action-group/|access-date=2021-05-27|language=en-US}}</ref><ref name="NYT-GAAG">{{cite web |last1=Kimmelman |first1=Michael |title=Art in Review |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1997/05/02/arts/art-in-review-900222.html |website=The New York Times |date=1997-05-02}}</ref> The group ultimately believed that the art world had been corrupted by profit and private interest, and used non-violent actions to ridicule art and media establishments.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Guerrilla Art Action Group {{!}} InEnArt|url=http://www.inenart.eu/?p=16947|access-date=2021-05-28|language=en-US}}</ref>

In 1970 he was a co-organizer of ''The People's Flag Show'', an exhibition of works made by artists using the American flag.<ref name="FLagShow1">{{cite web |last1=Russeth |first1=Andrew |title='Freedom of Speech Is Absolutely Imperative': Faith Ringgold on Her Early Art, Activism at the Museum of Modern Art |url=https://www.artnews.com/art-news/news/freedom-of-speech-is-absolutely-imperative-faith-ringgold-on-her-early-art-activism-at-moma-7453/#! |website=ARTnews.com |date=2016-12-08}}</ref> The show was intentionally designed to test the flag desecration laws in effect at the time.<ref name="flagShow3">{{cite book |last1=Ho |first1=Melissa |last2=Crow |first2=Thomas |last3=Levin |first3=Erica |last4=Nixon |first4=Mignon |last5=Rosler |first5=Martha |title=Artists Respond: American Art and the Vietnam War, 1965–1975 |date=2019-04-02 |publisher=Princeton University Press |isbn=978-0-691-19118-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4T9xDwAAQBAJ&dq=people%27s+flag+show&pg=PA147 |language=en}}</ref> With Jon Hendricks and Faith Ringgold, he was arrested for his participation in the show shortly after it opened.<ref name="FLagShow1"/><ref name="flagShow2">{{cite web |title=3 ARRESTED IN RAID ON FLAG ART SHOW |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1970/11/14/archives/3-arrested-in-raid-on-flag-art-show.html |website=The New York Times |date=1970-11-14}}</ref> The three were ultimately sentenced to a fine of $100 each or 30 days in jail, under a New York State Law that forbade desecrating the flag.<ref>{{cite web |title=FLAG SHOW ARTISTS FINED $100 APIECE |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1971/05/25/archives/flag-show-artists-fined-100-apiece.html |website=The New York Times |date=1971-05-25}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Gray |first1=John |title=Action Art: A Bibliography of Artists' Performance from Futurism to Fluxus and Beyond |date=1993 |publisher=ABC-CLIO |isbn=978-0-313-28916-3 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XtY1m7hjIgwC&dq=people%27s+flag+show&pg=PA55 |language=en}}</ref>

In 1974 Toche was arrested by the FBI and charged with mailing a kidnapping threat to New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.<ref name="kidnap1">{{cite web |title=Artist Here Charged In Kidnapping Threats |url=https://www.nytimes.com/1974/03/28/archives/artist-here-charged-in-kidnapping-threats.html |website=The New York Times |date=1974-03-28}}</ref><ref name="Leagle">{{cite web |title=UNITED STATES v. VAN IMSC {{!}} 390 F.Supp. 994 (1974) {{!}} upp99411229 {{!}} Leagle.com |url=https://www.leagle.com/decision/19741384390fsupp99411229 |website=Leagle |language=en}}</ref> The threat, in the form of a flyer, called for the kidnapping of "museum trustees, directors, administrators, curators and benefactors".<ref name="Leagle" /> Toche's flyers were in reposonse to the arrest of Tony Shafrazi, who had spray-painted “KILL LIES ALL” on Picasso's ''Guernica'', itself an act of protest against William Calley, who had participated in the My Lai massacre.<ref>{{cite web |last1=Scavone |first1=Jason |last2=Sunday |first2=Special to The |title=In this wild election cycle, protest art stirs up outrage, delight and conversation - Las Vegas Sun Newspaper |url=https://lasvegassun.com/news/2016/sep/26/protest-art-reactions-are-a-mix-of-outrage-and-del/ |website=lasvegassun.com |language=en |date=2016-09-26}}</ref>

His work has been exhibited in the United States, Belgium, Germany, Italy, and Slovenia. He died in 2018 in Staten Island, New York.

==Collections== His work is included in the collection of the Tate Museum, London.<ref name="Tate">{{cite web |title=Jean Toche 1932–2018 |url=https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/jean-toche-25028 |website=Tate}}</ref>

== References == {{reflist}}

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== External links == *[https://www.gallery.ca/library/ngc001.html Jean Toche correspondence] at the National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario *[https://digitalcollections.saic.edu/islandora/object/islandora%3Acajtm Jean Toche Mailings] at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL

{{DEFAULTSORT:Toche, Jean}} Category:1932 births Category:2018 deaths Category:Belgian contemporary artists Category:Belgian poems Category:People from Bruges