Claude Viallat (born 1936) is a French contemporary

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ...

Biography

Born in Nîmes, he grew up in Aubais, a French village with a strong bull tradition. In 1955, he joined the École des Beaux-Arts (Fine Arts School) in Montpellier, where he met André-Pierre Arnal, Vincent Bioulès, Daniel Dezeuze,

Toni Grand Toni Grand (born Antoine Pierre Charles Grand; 2 February 1935 – 29 November 2005) was a French sculptor. In his early career he was associated with the Supports/Surfaces group. He represented France at the 1982 Venice Biennale and his work h ...

, François Rouan, and Henriette Pous, whom he married in 1962. After doing his military service in Algeria from 1958 to 1961, he joined the

École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts The Beaux-Arts de Paris is a French '' grande école'' whose primary mission is to provide high-level arts education and training. This is classical and historical School of Fine Arts in France. The art school, which is part of the Paris Scien ...

(the National Fine Arts School) of

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. ...

, where he met fellow students Joël Kermarrec, Pierre Buraglio, and Michel Parmentier. He discovered

American art Visual art of the United States or American art is visual art made in the United States or by U.S. artists. Before colonization there were many flourishing traditions of Native American art, and where the Spanish colonized Spanish Colonial arch ...

in Paris, notably the works of

Kenneth Noland Kenneth Noland (April 10, 1924 – January 5, 2010) was an American painter. He was one of the best-known American color field painters, although in the 1950s he was thought of as an abstract expressionist and in the early 1960s he was though ...

Morris Louis Morris Louis Bernstein (November 28, 1912 – September 7, 1962), known professionally as Morris Louis, was an American painter. During the 1950s he became one of the earliest exponents of Color Field painting. While living in Washington, D.C ...

Sam Francis Samuel Lewis Francis (June 25, 1923 – November 4, 1994) was an American painter and printmaker. Early life Sam Francis was born in San Mateo, California,

, and

Mark Rothko Mark Rothko (), born Markus Yakovlevich Rothkowitz (russian: Ма́ркус Я́ковлевич Ротко́вич, link=no, lv, Markuss Rotkovičs, link=no; name not Anglicized until 1940; September 25, 1903 – February 25, 1970), was a Lat ...

. As soon as 1963, he was attracted to

abstraction Abstraction in its main sense is a conceptual process wherein general rules and concepts are derived from the usage and classification of specific examples, literal ("real" or " concrete") signifiers, first principles, or other methods. "An a ...

. He was appointed as a teacher in the École des Arts Décoratifs (Decorative Arts School) of

Nice Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...

in 1964 and decided to create a new formal language questioning the conventions of classical painting. He then started working systematically with one shape affixed on canvas without stretchers. His first personal exhibition took place at Nice’s Galerie A in 1966. He also participated in several collective exhibitions that year. In 1967, he was appointed as a teacher in the École des Beaux-Arts (School of Fine Arts) in

Limoges Limoges (, , ; oc, Lemòtges, locally ) is a city and Communes of France, commune, and the prefecture of the Haute-Vienne Departments of France, department in west-central France. It was the administrative capital of the former Limousin region ...

, where he met

Raoul Hausmann Raoul Hausmann (July 12, 1886 – February 1, 1971) was an Austrian artist and writer. One of the key figures in Berlin Dada, his experimental photographic collages, sound poetry, and institutional critiques would have a profound influence on ...

. In 1968, in Paris, Viallat had his first personal exhibition at the gallery led by Jean Fournier – who remained his gallerist for nearly thirty years. He then participated in an exhibition that arguably originated the “Support/Surfaces” movement at the ARC, in the Modern Art Museum of Paris. His works were in most of the exhibitions of the movement from 1969 to 1971. Although he initiated this group and influenced it aesthetically through his pictorial works, he resigned on May 3, 1971 as he disagreed with the political and theoretical orientations imposed by Louis Cane and Marc Devade. In 1972, during his first trip to the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., federal district, five ma ...

, he discovered

Jackson Pollock Paul Jackson Pollock (; January 28, 1912August 11, 1956) was an American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was widely noticed for his " drip technique" of pouring or splashing liquid household paint onto a ho ...

's paintings and the art of Native Americans. The same year, he participated in the “

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in ...

” exhibition at the

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...

of New York, and the “Douze Ans d'Art Contemporain en France” exhibition (Twelve Years of Contemporary Art in France) at the

Grand Palais The Grand Palais des Champs-Élysées ( en, Great Palace of the Elysian Fields), commonly known as the Grand Palais ( English: Great Palace), is a historic site, exhibition hall and museum complex located at the Champs-Élysées in the 8th ...

. In 1973, he was appointed as an instructor at the École des Beaux-Arts (the Fine Arts School) of Luminy (located at ''avenue de Luminy'', in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fran ...

), and moved to Marseille. In 1974, the first ever Viallat exhibition in a museum was organised in

Saint-Étienne Saint-Étienne (; frp, Sant-Etiève; oc, Sant Estève, ) is a city and the prefecture of the Loire department in eastern-central France, in the Massif Central, southwest of Lyon in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Saint-Étienne is the ...

's Musée d'Art et d'Industrie (Museum of Art and Industry). In 1979, Claude Viallat became director of the École des Beaux-Arts (Fine Arts School) of Nîmes. He started collecting objects related to bulls. His collection was the starting point of the Musée des Cultures Taurines (Museum of Bull Tradition) of Nîmes, opened in 1986. The Centre National d'Art et de Culture Georges Pompidou (the National Modern Art Museum of Paris) hosted a Viallat retrospective in 1982. He represented France at the

Venice Biennial The Venice Biennale (; it, La Biennale di Venezia) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy by the Biennale Foundation. The biennale has been organised every year since 1895, which makes it the oldest of ...

in 1988. The same year, he made the stained-glass windows of the Gothic Choir in

Nevers Cathedral Nevers Cathedral (french: Cathédrale Saint-Cyr-et-Sainte-Julitte de Nevers) is a Roman Catholic church located in the town of Nevers, Nièvre, France, and dedicated to Saints Cyricus and Julitta. The cathedral is the seat of the Bishop o ...

. In 1991, he became a teacher at the

(National Fine Arts School) of

and participated in the Supports/Surfaces historical and retrospective exhibition at the Musée d'Art Moderne (Modern Art Museum) of Saint-Étienne. In 2006, he was awarded with the Fine Arts Academy's Fondation Simone et Cino del Duca ( Simone and Cino Del Duca Foundation) prize for painting . In France he is represented by Galerie

Daniel Templon Daniel Templon is a French contemporary art dealer born in 1945. In 1966, he founded his first contemporary art gallery in Paris. Galerie Templon With no artistic background,Georgina Adam (10 June 2016)The Art Market: A dealer with staying power ...

Paris/Brussels since 1998 and by Ceysson & Bénétière (Paris, Saint-Étienne). Claude Viallat is also represented internationally in Tokyo by

Gallery Itsutsuji is a contemporary art gallery founded in 1990 by Michiyasu Itsutsuji. History Expanding a tradition built over 20 years from around 1970 to 1990 by Fuji Television Gallery, Michiyasu Itsutsuji founded in the traditional cultural heart of To ...

and in New York by Ceysson & Bénétière.

External links

New York Times review at Ceysson & Bénétière New York

{{DEFAULTSORT:Viallat, Claude 20th-century French painters 20th-century French male artists French male painters French contemporary artists 21st-century French painters 1936 births Living people People from Nîmes 20th-century French sculptors French male sculptors Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Chevaliers of the Légion d'honneur