James Picchette Biography
Brother of Henri Pichette, famous poet and playwright, James Pichette was born in 1920 in Châteauroux in France. He settled in Paris immediately after the war and had some hesitations between his career as an actor and painting, he chose the latter. Thirsty to see, to learn and to store impressions, he travels, in Italy in particular; in 1952 he obtained a scholarship and followed courses in Amsterdam, where Mondrian's work particularly struck him. He discovers Spain, Tunisia, Germany and other countries. In 1960 he met Sam Francis and Calder in New York. Pichette made his work known in numerous events and collective exhibitions, but it was in 1949 in Paris that his first solo exhibition was dedicated. Pichette began his work as a painter with the figurative, then went through a phase of cubist orientation like most of the young painters of his generation. Around 1947 he created his first abstract works, tinged with surrealism. Later, starting from the 60s, and after his trip to New York, his painting leaves great space for gestures and generous material mixtures, halfway between lyrical abstraction and a more structured composition. The year 1968 marks the entry of circular shapes into his compositions, the canvas or paper are worked with subtle uniformities of color. James Pichette died in Paris in 1996.
