Georges Mathieu

Georges Mathieu was born on January 27, 1921, in Boulogne-sur-Mer, into a family of bankers. After studying literature, law, and philosophy, he began painting in 1942.
Following World War II, Georges Mathieu committed himself to gestural non-figurative painting, which he called "Lyrical Abstraction," advocating it against geometric abstraction. He became one of the leading theorists of this new form of abstraction, drawing parallels with the emerging Action Painting movement in the United States. Immersed in the post-war artistic fervor in Paris, he exhibited in several renowned galleries, including the Galerie Rive Droite, which regularly showcased his work from 1954 to 1971.
From 1950 onward, Mathieu explored tachisme, titling his works after episodes from French history, which fascinated him, such as "The Battle of Bouvines" in April 1954. He also introduced the dimension of performance into his painting, creating certain works live in front of an audience, like "Les Capétiens partout," painted in 1 hour and 20 minutes in front of Jean Larcade's castle in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. These performances revealed his creative process to the public, without any preliminary sketch, using paint directly from the tube. This gestural approach aligned him with Eastern artistic practices, earning him the label of "Western calligrapher" by André Malraux.
Recognized internationally from the 1950s, his work was exhibited in the United States, Japan, and worldwide. He traveled extensively, visiting prestigious universities in the United States and touring Europe, Brazil, Argentina, Lebanon, Israel, and Canada. Major exhibitions of his works were held in renowned galleries in Cologne, Paris, New York, Montreal, Rio de Janeiro, and Singapore, and a retrospective was presented at the Galerie nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris in 2002.
Starting in 1962, Mathieu sought to transform his artistic language into a style, creating a diverse universe on various mediums, from furniture to jewelry. He collaborated with several artistic institutions such as the Manufacture nationale des Gobelins, the Manufacture de Sèvres, and the Monnaie de Paris. He produced monumental sculptures and public artworks, and from 1985 onwards, his work underwent significant evolution, abandoning central composition to let forms invade the entire surface of the canvas.
Alongside his painting career, Mathieu held various editorial positions, including Director of Public Relations for the American airline United States Lines in Paris starting in 1947, and Editor-in-Chief of the United States Lines Review in Paris from 1950 to 1964. He passed away on June 10, 2012, in Boulogne-Billancourt.