Georges Mathieu Artwork valuations, appraisals and auction estimates

Georges Mathieu was born on 27 January 1921 in Boulogne-sur-Mer. After completing his studies in literature, law and philosophy at the University of Lille, he taught English at Douai High School and later French at the American University of Biarritz. Read the full biography

Georges Mathieu was born on 27 January 1921 in Boulogne-sur-Mer. After completing his studies in literature, law and philosophy at the University of Lille, he taught English at Douai High School and later French at the American University of Biarritz. His artistic debut dates back to 1942: after a brief period as a landscape and portrait painter, his artistic interests turned towards abstract and expressionist studies, using physical automatism, intuition and emotion as inspiring principles. He exhibited for the first time in 1946 at the "Salon for minors under 30" in Paris and in 1950 he held his first solo exhibition at the Galerie René Drouin. In 1947 Mathieu, together with Camille Bryen, launched a new non-figurative artistic movement, Psychique, which explicitly opposed the geometric abstraction prevalent in Paris, proposing a new abstraction, gestural and lyrical, which broke with traditions and rules until that dominant moment, placing purely pictorial phenomena in the foreground. Based on these principles, he began to organize "Abstract Liric" exhibitions to introduce this generation of artists to French and European audiences, which the critic Tapier shortly thereafter characterized as informal . In recent years, among numerous exhibitions, he organized the first meeting in Europe of American and French avant-garde painting at the Galerie Montparnasse. At the same time, his work also gained international acclaim and began to be exhibited in galleries in New York and London. In his first painting, defined by critics as "Tachisti" - from "Tache" (stain) - using blocks of color (first oil, then synthetic resin) applied directly to the canvas from a tube, particular attention is paid to the preparation of the background, made with very diluted colors, almost always built from a central axis, despite the apparent confusion, and then developed by orthogonal lines and semicircular curves pushed outwards by centrifugal force. In '49 he focuses on the theme of signs, and between '50 and '51 it is noted that it is linked to the speed and impulsiveness of gestures, a direct grasp of reality without any cognitive and rational intervention. Hence the choice to transform his creations into dramatic pictorial action events, during which, for a limited time, in front of a selected audience, he creates large canvases: at the Sarah Bernhardt Theater in 1956, in 2000 In front of a human audience , a 4x12 meter painting was created using 800 paint tubes. In 1957, Matthew went to Japan with the critic Michel Tapier to learn about Gutai. During the visit, he demonstrated action painting in a kimono in front of representatives of the Japanese group and completed 21 works in just three days, including a 15-meter mural. Around 1962 he directed his artistic studies on new expressive forms: from monumental sculptures to furniture, plates, jewellery, tapestry designs, posters, stamps and coins. Combining this artistic activity with his theoretical criticism, he has published a series of writings and interventions in the fields of architecture, furniture and typography. In 1975 he was elected member of the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris and the Gallimard editions published together with his writings from 1947 to 1971 under the title "From revolt to rebirth". In September 1986 Mathieu presented the painting "Bourbon Whiskey" Biennale in the section Relations between Art and Science of the International Pavilion of Venice. The main interpreter and promoter of contemporary "abstract lyric poetry" revolves around the main role of the free-creative gesture, and the main role of "tachisme", Matteo not only paved the way for a new aesthetic revolution that changed the history of post-war art, but also brings a focus on ethics that involves and questions the role of the artist in contemporary society.