Gérard Schneider
Sainte-Croix, Svizzera, 1896 - Parigi, 1986
A painter belonging to the Ecole de Paris, in the post-war period Schneider played an important role, alongside Hartung and Soulages, in the research on Abstract Art of the second generation and especially in the research of the so-called Lyrical Abstractionism that contrasted with the geometrically inclined Abstractionism.
After completing his secondary education in Neuchâtel, Switzerland, he moved to Paris at the outbreak of the First World War. In 1916, he first entered the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs under the direction of Paul Renouard, later the Atelier Cormon, and in 1918 the Ecole des Beaux Arts.
In Paris, he earned his living as a restorer of antique paintings, having inherited the trade from his antiquarian and cabinetmaker father, and painted still lifes, flowers and gardens reminiscent of some of Georges Braque's and Matisse's works.
The years 1926-31 saw a period of research into movement, followed by imaginative painting. From 1932 he experimented with abstract canvases and then returned to figuration on several occasions. In 1939 he met Picasso. It is in 1943-44 that he reaches a certain artistic maturity with some compositions where all figurative references have disappeared. The colours are austere and dark: blacks, browns, greys and the lines cross and tangle vertically and horizontally. A few bursts of blue, green and white illuminate these sets of the artist's invented and well-structured forms that he calls his 'Compositions'. In 1945, the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris bought his first work, a Composition painted in 1944. From 1945 onwards, each of his canvases bears the same title 'Opus' to which he adds a number.
In 1946, he participated in the first post-war exhibition of Abstract Art held at the Galerie Denis René. Dewasne, Deyrolle, Hartung, etc. are also present. Although Schneider is the oldest of the group, he testifies to an eagerness and freshness that will be constant characteristics of his work.
In 1950, he exhibited for the last time at Lydia Conti's, who had already organised other solo shows for him since 1947, and instead entered the Galerie Louis Carré where he exhibited with Hartung and Lanskoy the following year. He took part in numerous group exhibitions, including the Salon d'Automne, the Salon des Surindépendants, the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, the Salon de Mai, the Venice Biennale, the São Paulo Biennale, and numerous solo exhibitions in France and abroad: Europe, Latin America, the United States and Japan. In the latter two countries (the former being the home of Action Painting and the latter of calligraphy art) Schneider enjoys great renown.
Among the prizes he has won are: Lissone Prize for Abstract Painting (1957), Prix de Tokyo, Grand Prix National des Arts (1975), Medal of the 'Ville de Paris' in 1983.
As a painter belonging to the Ecole de Paris, in the post-war period Schneider played an important role, alongside Hartung and Soulages, in the research on Abstract Art of the second generation and especially in the research of so-called Lyrical Abstractionism, which contrasted with the geometrically inclined Abstractionism.
Compared to Kandinsky and Mondrian, Schneider's Abstractionism is in fact romantic, emotional. With a palette dominated by vivid yellows, purples, reds, greens, blacks and brighter whites, Schneider's painting is characterised by traces of colour thrown vehemently onto the canvas in an attempt to capture the fleeting moment.
It is only since 1956, then, that his plastic language is fixed in definitive rules, and the gigantic brush strokes, often black of the most opaque, cross their traces on the canvas. Schneider replaces traditional oil paint with acrylic paint, which is easier to handle. All these acts and gestures leave their mark and show the evident admiration for the art of the Far East.
In the canvases of the 1960s, the artist seems enraptured by a new frenzy, his black, brown, blue and yellow shapes collide, overwhelm and overlap with greater vigour. Spots, splashes also appear, making the colour explode in a swirl of molecules.
Towards the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s, the forms multiply again, the compositions rediscover a violence that is never the same. During these years, colour reigns supreme, Schneider paints canvases of intense luminosity and his work is imbued with a new freshness, even though he is already over eighty years of age.
From April to August 2006, his works were in demand at the Musée de Luxembourg in Paris on the occasion of the exhibition 'L'envolée lyrique', the first detailed and comprehensive exhibition on lyrical abstraction. The event was accompanied by the publication of a comprehensive catalogue illustrating over a hundred works.
Museums:
Parigi (Musée National d’Art Moderne, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville, Ministère des Postes et Télécommunications), Neuchâtel (Musée d’Art et d’Histoire), Strasburgo, Verviers (Musée des Beaux-Arts), Tolosa (Musée des Augustin), Nantes (Musée des Beaux-Arts), Dunkerque (Musée de l’Art Contemporain), Grenoble - Francia; Colonia (Wallraf-Richartz Museum) - Germania; Liegi (Musée des Beaux Arts), Bruxelles (Musée d’Art Moderne) - Belgio; Zurigo (Kunsthaus) - Svizzera; Oslo (Fondation Sonja Henie et Niels Onstad) - Norvegia; Milano (Museo d’Arte Moderna, Museo del Premio Lissone), Torino (Galleria Civica d’arte Moderna); Roma (Galleria d’Arte Moderna) - Italia; Montreal (Museum of Fine Arts); Minneapolis (Walker Art Center), New York, Phoenix, Princeton (Mass. Priceton University), Washington D.C. (The Phillips Collection), Worchester (Mass. Worchester Art Museum), Saint-Louis (Washington University); Buffalo (Albright Art Gallery); Colorado Springs (Fine Arts Center) Cedar Falls (Iowa State College); Los Angeles (University of California) – Stati Uniti; Giacarta - Filippine; Rio de Janeiro (Museo d’Arte Moderna) - Brasile.
Bibliography:
XXIV Biennale di Venezia, Edizioni Serenissima, 1948; Raymon Nacenta, La Scuola di Parigi, Istituto Geografico de Agostini, Novara, 1960;
Eugenio Montale, traduit par P.J. Jouve, 8 dessin par Gerard Schneider, Milano, All’insegna del pesce d’oro, 1964; J. Orizet, Schneider, Peintures, Paris, L’autre Musée, 1984; Gerard Schneider Peintures, par R.V. Gindertael, Preface de Marcel Brion, Edizioni Alfieri, Venezia; L. Harambourg, L’Ecole de Paris, 1945-1965, Neuchatel, Ed. Ides et Calendes, 1993
M. Ragon, Schneider, Angers, Expression Contemporaines, 1998.
In Paris, he earned his living as a restorer of antique paintings, having inherited the trade from his antiquarian and cabinetmaker father, and painted still lifes, flowers and gardens reminiscent of some of Georges Braque's and Matisse's works.
The years 1926-31 saw a period of research into movement, followed by imaginative painting. From 1932 he experimented with abstract canvases and then returned to figuration on several occasions. In 1939 he met Picasso. It is in 1943-44 that he reaches a certain artistic maturity with some compositions where all figurative references have disappeared. The colours are austere and dark: blacks, browns, greys and the lines cross and tangle vertically and horizontally. A few bursts of blue, green and white illuminate these sets of the artist's invented and well-structured forms that he calls his 'Compositions'. In 1945, the Musée National d'Art Moderne in Paris bought his first work, a Composition painted in 1944. From 1945 onwards, each of his canvases bears the same title 'Opus' to which he adds a number.
In 1946, he participated in the first post-war exhibition of Abstract Art held at the Galerie Denis René. Dewasne, Deyrolle, Hartung, etc. are also present. Although Schneider is the oldest of the group, he testifies to an eagerness and freshness that will be constant characteristics of his work.
In 1950, he exhibited for the last time at Lydia Conti's, who had already organised other solo shows for him since 1947, and instead entered the Galerie Louis Carré where he exhibited with Hartung and Lanskoy the following year. He took part in numerous group exhibitions, including the Salon d'Automne, the Salon des Surindépendants, the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, the Salon de Mai, the Venice Biennale, the São Paulo Biennale, and numerous solo exhibitions in France and abroad: Europe, Latin America, the United States and Japan. In the latter two countries (the former being the home of Action Painting and the latter of calligraphy art) Schneider enjoys great renown.
Among the prizes he has won are: Lissone Prize for Abstract Painting (1957), Prix de Tokyo, Grand Prix National des Arts (1975), Medal of the 'Ville de Paris' in 1983.
As a painter belonging to the Ecole de Paris, in the post-war period Schneider played an important role, alongside Hartung and Soulages, in the research on Abstract Art of the second generation and especially in the research of so-called Lyrical Abstractionism, which contrasted with the geometrically inclined Abstractionism.
Compared to Kandinsky and Mondrian, Schneider's Abstractionism is in fact romantic, emotional. With a palette dominated by vivid yellows, purples, reds, greens, blacks and brighter whites, Schneider's painting is characterised by traces of colour thrown vehemently onto the canvas in an attempt to capture the fleeting moment.
It is only since 1956, then, that his plastic language is fixed in definitive rules, and the gigantic brush strokes, often black of the most opaque, cross their traces on the canvas. Schneider replaces traditional oil paint with acrylic paint, which is easier to handle. All these acts and gestures leave their mark and show the evident admiration for the art of the Far East.
In the canvases of the 1960s, the artist seems enraptured by a new frenzy, his black, brown, blue and yellow shapes collide, overwhelm and overlap with greater vigour. Spots, splashes also appear, making the colour explode in a swirl of molecules.
Towards the end of the 1970s and the beginning of the 1980s, the forms multiply again, the compositions rediscover a violence that is never the same. During these years, colour reigns supreme, Schneider paints canvases of intense luminosity and his work is imbued with a new freshness, even though he is already over eighty years of age.
From April to August 2006, his works were in demand at the Musée de Luxembourg in Paris on the occasion of the exhibition 'L'envolée lyrique', the first detailed and comprehensive exhibition on lyrical abstraction. The event was accompanied by the publication of a comprehensive catalogue illustrating over a hundred works.
Museums:
Parigi (Musée National d’Art Moderne, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville, Ministère des Postes et Télécommunications), Neuchâtel (Musée d’Art et d’Histoire), Strasburgo, Verviers (Musée des Beaux-Arts), Tolosa (Musée des Augustin), Nantes (Musée des Beaux-Arts), Dunkerque (Musée de l’Art Contemporain), Grenoble - Francia; Colonia (Wallraf-Richartz Museum) - Germania; Liegi (Musée des Beaux Arts), Bruxelles (Musée d’Art Moderne) - Belgio; Zurigo (Kunsthaus) - Svizzera; Oslo (Fondation Sonja Henie et Niels Onstad) - Norvegia; Milano (Museo d’Arte Moderna, Museo del Premio Lissone), Torino (Galleria Civica d’arte Moderna); Roma (Galleria d’Arte Moderna) - Italia; Montreal (Museum of Fine Arts); Minneapolis (Walker Art Center), New York, Phoenix, Princeton (Mass. Priceton University), Washington D.C. (The Phillips Collection), Worchester (Mass. Worchester Art Museum), Saint-Louis (Washington University); Buffalo (Albright Art Gallery); Colorado Springs (Fine Arts Center) Cedar Falls (Iowa State College); Los Angeles (University of California) – Stati Uniti; Giacarta - Filippine; Rio de Janeiro (Museo d’Arte Moderna) - Brasile.
Bibliography:
XXIV Biennale di Venezia, Edizioni Serenissima, 1948; Raymon Nacenta, La Scuola di Parigi, Istituto Geografico de Agostini, Novara, 1960;
Eugenio Montale, traduit par P.J. Jouve, 8 dessin par Gerard Schneider, Milano, All’insegna del pesce d’oro, 1964; J. Orizet, Schneider, Peintures, Paris, L’autre Musée, 1984; Gerard Schneider Peintures, par R.V. Gindertael, Preface de Marcel Brion, Edizioni Alfieri, Venezia; L. Harambourg, L’Ecole de Paris, 1945-1965, Neuchatel, Ed. Ides et Calendes, 1993
M. Ragon, Schneider, Angers, Expression Contemporaines, 1998.
