Oscar Gauthier
Composition , dated 1952
Oil on canvas Signed and dated lower right. Includes a sketch on the back of the canvas. Dimensions: 73 x 60 cm With frame: 99 x 86 cm
sold
Oscar Gauthier delivers a dynamic painting, populated by vibrant colors. Described as a color craftsman, he is above all a master of the line. In this Composition , the artist holds the attention of the spectators in the foreground. The geometric shapes are punctuated with points of force, and rhythm with dexterity on the surface of the canvas, which one would think was a musical score. Oscar Gauthier, one of the leaders of lyrical Abstaction, is an abstract landscape painter, preoccupied with light and movement. His work from the 50s, using thick, structured materials, is to be placed in Abstract Expressionism.
Born in the Nièvre region, Oscar Gauthier moved to Paris at the age of ten. Around the age of twenty, he trained at the Beaux Arts in Paris and at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière (Othon Friesz’s studio). His studies were disrupted by the Second World War, he joined the Resistance. In 1947, he obtained a scholarship to stay in the United States. He travels to Mexico, discovers pre-Columbian art and Mexican muralists, is greatly inspired and sells a few paintings.
Returning to France in 1948, he was supported by the Colette Allandy gallery. He left her to join the group of the painter John-Franklin Koenig in Saint-Germain-des-Prés around 1952. They are supported by Jean-Robert Arnaud who, associated with the painter John-Franklin Koenig, opens a gallery at 34 rue du Four. For ten years, the site was the crossroads of Abstraction Lyrique, or “Lyrical Landscaping” (or as Michel Ragon calls it). Bibliography : – L’Abstraction lyrique, Paris 1945-1956, Paris, éditions Skira, 2006. See also all publications of articles by Roger van Gindertael, painter and then art critic between the 1950s and 1960s in Paris. Museums: – Musée National d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris – Musée des beaux-arts de Nantes – Centre National des Arts-Plastiques – Fond d’art contemporain de la ville de Paris
