Georges MATHIEU

Biography

Georges Mathieu, born on 27 January 1921 in Boulogne-sur-Mer and died on 10 June 2012 in Boulogne-Billancourt, was a French painter considered one of the fathers of lyrical abstraction.

He is also famous for his 1974 ten franc coin, his 1975 Antenne 2 logotype, and his postal stamps.

Born into a family of bankers, Georges Mathieu initially studied law, literature and philosophy. In 1942, he turned to the plastic arts and produced his first oil paintings. For a few years he worked as a teacher before embarking on an artistic career. In 1946, he held his first exhibition in Paris at the Salon des moins de trente ans.

In 1947, he exhibited at the Salon des réalités nouvelles, with canvases with a texture made of spots directly from the tube, claiming to be the father of dripping, a technique attributed to Janet Sobel in 1944 and developed by Jackson Pollock in 1945, the colours being, in Mathieu's case, crushed by the artist's finger from 1944. That same year he participated in the 14th Salon des Surindépendants.

From 1950, he exhibited in the United States and Japan.

From 1954 onwards, he created a multitude of paintings, often during performances or happenings timed in front of an audience, which highlighted the speed and virtuosity of his gestures.

In 1958, in New York, he also tried to create works in public, but was forbidden to do so. He ended up painting alone in the galleries of his hotel. New York galleries refused to exhibit his work. This ostracisation by American institutions and galleries lasted until his death.

In 1973, he produced his only architectural work. At the request of the industrialist Guy Biraud, a transformer manufacturer, he drew up plans for a factory in Fontenay-le-Comte. The resulting Mathieu factory is an original star-shaped complex with seven unequal branches, whose all-glass perimeter is seen by the artist as a way of linking the workplace to the surrounding nature.  

He died on 10 June 2012 at the Ambroise-Paré hospital in Boulogne-Billancourt. He is buried in Paris in the Montmartre cemetery (13th division).