French artist Olivier Debré developed a unique genre of abstraction for his vibrant canvases and public works, forging his own path in the history of Post-War painting.
Read MoreOlivier Debré was born in 1920 to a prominent Parisian family. His interests in the arts developed early on, first studying architecture under Le Corbusier at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in 1939, then exhibiting paintings the following year. By 1942, he was involved with Picasso's circle and was advised by Picasso himself to focus on abstraction.
Debré's practice marked a departure from the Cubist and geometric tendencies of modernist painting. Rather, he worked in vast, poetic brushstrokes, creating lyrical, abstract compositions loaded with emotion. He was most interested in exploring space and colour on his large canvases, often featuring expansive fields of colour populated by variant, vibrant hues at the corner and edges of the work.
His early, post-war work of the 1950s is distinguished by what he called 'signes-personnages' (figurative signs) and 'signes-paysages' (landscape signs), with which he alluded to representational meaning in his abstract work. He used a palette knife to create an impasto application of paint to render these simplified 'signs'.
In the following decade, Debré often painted en plein air. He aimed to explore the sensation of immersion in nature through his artwork, especially after abstract expressionists like Franz Kline and Mark Rothko inspired him to focus on the purity of emotion evoked by nature. He called this genre of painting 'fervent abstraction'.
Debré was therefore very influenced by place and landscape, often painting along the Loire River. He travelled regularly, both in his native France as well as to Japan, Myanmar, Morocco, Israel and Italy. His trip to Norway in 1966 was especially influential, sparking a shift to a lighter colour palette.
Debré's colourful canvases proved to have global appeal and his work was exhibited widely. Notably, he participated in two World's Fairs, creating large-scale paintings for the French Pavilions at the editions in Montreal and Osaka, in 1967 and 1970, respectively.
Olivier Debré took his paintings to an even larger scale for several commissions of stage curtains for major theatres. These include the Comédie Française (1987) and Théâtre des Abbesses (1996) in Paris, as well as further afield for the Hong Kong Opera (1989) and the new Shanghai Opera (1999).
The connection between Debré's work and performance also extends to ballet. Choreographer Carolyn Carlson created a ballet inspired by the artist titled Signes for which Debré designed the set and costumes. The ballet premiered at the Opéra Bastille in 1997 and was revived there in 2013 and again in 2023.
Olivier Debré's work is represented in public and private collections on an international scale, including the Centre Pompidou, Paris; Musée d'Histoire et d'Art de Luxembourg; the Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.; the Taipei Fine Art Museum; and the Foundation Gandur pour l'Art, Geneva.
Debré was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1999, shortly before his death later that year. His legacy continues with the Centre de Création Contemporaine Olivier Debré in Tours, France, opened in his honour in 2016.
Olivier Debré has been the subject of both solo and group exhibitions.
Solo exhibitions include: Olivier Debré: Fervent Abstraction, The Estorick Collection, London (2021); Olivier Debré, un abstrait lyrique, Musée d'Ixelles, Brussels (2011); Olivier Debré, œuvres de la dation, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2003); Olivier Debré Retrospective, History Museum, Beijing and Modern Art Museum, Hong Kong (1998); and Olivier Debré Rétrospective, Galerie du Jeu de Paume, Paris (1995).
Group exhibitions include: L'Art en Guerre, France 1938—1947, Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (2012) and Museo Guggenheim, Bilbao (2013); La Dimension du Corps 1920—1980, National Museum of Modern Art, Tokyo and Kyoto (1996); and Entre la Sérénité et l'Inquiétude, Musée d'Art moderne, Saint-Etienne (1993).
Olivier Debré's work sells regularly at auction all over the world, especially in France. His auction record at time of writing was for the sale of Figure rude en bleu tendre at Sotheby's Paris on 3 December 2021 for 260,000 EUR.
Articles on Olivier Debré have been published in various publications, including The New York Times, The Independent, and Art Daily.
Rachel Kubrick | Ocula | 2023
