Georges Mathieu was one of the leading artistic figures of the Informel art movement in France, along with Jean Fautrier and Jean Dubuffet. He began working as a self-taught artist at the age of 21, quickly developing his own abstract form of expression and forging relationships with a number of established artists including Camille Bryen and Wols. The young Frenchman even developed a drip and pour technique before Jackson Pollock made it famous.
From 1954 onwards, Mathieu took the painting process to the stage as a performance in front of an audience. He travelled to Japan in 1957 in the company of Toshimitsu Imaï, Sam Francis and Michel Tapié, where he delivered painting performances and gave lectures on Western avant-garde art to large audiences of students. With the essay ‘Au-delà du Tachisme’, published in 1963, and further theoretical writings, he also made a name for himself as an art theorist.
Georges Mathieu (1921–2012)
This is David´s spoil, 1962
Currently exhibited: No
Material: Oil on canvas
Size: 114 x 195 cm
Inv-Nr.: B_304
Image rights: VG Bild-Kunst, Bonn
Keywords:
Previous owner: Private collection, Paris
Acquisition: Reinhard Ernst Collection, Sotheby’s, Paris, 2013
Georges Mathieu was one of the leading artistic figures of the Informel art movement in France, along with Jean Fautrier and Jean Dubuffet. Born in Boulogne-sur-Mer (Pas-de-Calais) in 1921, he initially studied philosophy and literature before he began working as a self-taught artist at the age of 21. He quickly developed his own abstract form of expression and forged relationships with a number of established artists including Camille Bryen and Wols (works by both can be found in the Reinhard Ernst Collection). The young Frenchman even developed a drip and pour technique before Jackson Pollock made it famous. Mathieu advocated acting with speed because it allowed you to ‘capture and express what rises from the depths of the being, without a spontaneous outburst being restrained and altered by rational deliberation and intervention’ [1].
From 1954, Mathieu staged the painting of his large-scale pictures as an artistic event. In front of an audience of 2,000 in Paris in 1956, he created a painting almost 6m in length in 30 minutes. He turned painting into performance. These events had much in common with happenings and action painting and saw him create decorative, linear paintings reminiscent of calligraphy, often in his preferred colours of black, white and red and with ornamental characteristics. He celebrated painting with complete physical commitment in these improvisations. He saw a close connection between his work and East Asian calligraphy: ‘To the extent that I am a painter, I am also a calligrapher. It is unfortunate […] the Western world completely ignores that painting emerges from the art of writing.’ [2] He travelled to Japan in 1957 in the company of Toshimitsu Imaï, Sam Francis and Michel Tapié, where he delivered painting performances and gave lectures on Western avant-garde art to large audiences of students. With the essay ‘Au-delà du Tachisme’, published in 1963, and further theoretical writings, he also made a name for himself as an art theorist.
[1] Quoted in Rolf Wedewer: Die Malerei des Informel – Weltverlust und Ich-Behauptung, Munich, Berlin 2007, p. 207.
[2] Cited in Marguerite Müller-Yao: “Informelle Malerei und chinesische Kalligrafie”, in: Informel – Begegnungen und Wandel, ed. by Heinz Althöfer, Dortmund 2002, p. 338.
