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Claude Viallat

1936

Claude Viallat is a French painter. Born in Nimes in 1936, he is renowned for his creative process developed on the basis of a unique principle, that of the repetition of a simple, recurrent, immediately recognisable form, developed in series across multiple and unconventional media. Challenging both the medium and the tool, Viallat is celebrated internationally for his pioneering role and his works are featured in many contemporary art collections.

Starting in 1966, Viallat began to repeat a single oblong shape, neither abstract nor figurative, over the entire surface of a canvas detached from its stretcher, according to the all-over technique. Having become his signature, this motif and creative process were part of a radical critique of the informal and geometric art currents, which had been dominant in the artistic landscape since the 1960s.

Viallat uses all kinds of flexible substrates, mostly made of poor materials, from everyday life: industrial tarpaulins, sheets, umbrellas, curtains, jute fabric, shirts. Viallat explains in this regard that “it is the quality of the canvas, of the substrate, which organises both the result and the work, because I manufacture substrates which are very often irregular, with worn fabrics.” Guiding the realisation of the work, these materials, which are sometimes interlinked, each have their own way of reacting to the application of colour. This offers many “surprises” to the artist, whose approach accommodates a degree of chance.

A remarkable colourist, Viallat uses bright colours to represent the shape that made him famous, “the simplest, the most elementary, the most immediate,” which is infinitely repeated across the different substrates. To paint, Viallat stands above the substrate placed on the ground, in the manner of the artists who inspired him: Simon Hantaï, Jackson Pollock, or Sam Francis. Applied to the untreated substrate, this shape determines the composition, which is dominated by a rhythmic search for harmony. Exhibited without a frame, hung or suspended in space, the canvas according to Viallat offers a moving and three-dimensional alternative to the frontality of the traditional painting.

In 1969, with a group of artists from the South of France, including Vincent Bouilès, Daniel Dezeuze and Patrick Saytour, he founded the Supports/Surfaces movement, which aimed to challenge traditional pictorial means, both in terms of substrate, motif, and final object. After several group exhibitions, including one at the Musée d’Art Moderne in Paris in 1969, the group separated in 1972 following several disagreements.

Having taken part in numerous solo and group exhibitions since the mid-1960s, Viallat benefited from a major retrospective at the Centre Pompidou in Paris in 1982. His participation in the Venice Biennale in 1988 for the French Pavilion was the pinnacle of this recognition. His works are included in the most important collections devoted to contemporary art, including those of the Musée d’art moderne de la ville de Paris and MOMA in New York.


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“It is the quality of the canvas, of the substrate, which organises both the result and the work, because I manufacture substrates which are very often irregular, with worn fabrics.”

Claude Viallat

Claude Viallat gives a last brush stroke before completing a piece. Photo Anthony Maurin. ©Objectif Gard.

Artworks

Claude Viallat

2003/173, 2003
Acrylic on tent cloth
177 x 211 cm | 69 5/8 x 83 1/8 in.

Claude Viallat, Sans titre

1986

Claude Viallat, 1985/132

1985

Claude Viallat, Untitled

1981

Claude Viallat, 1985/005

1985

Exhibitions

News

Claude Viallat, Et Pourtant Si…

October 27th 2023 - March 3rd 2024

Carré d'Art, Nîmes

For the first time, Le Carré d’Art in Nîmes, Viallat’s birthplace, presents an exhibition dedicated to this artist, founder of the Support/Surface movement. The exhibition focuses on recent works by Viallat, taken directly from the artist’s studio. Paintings, sculptures and assemblages are presented to demonstrate the talent of this exceptional colorist. A founding member of […]

Claude Viallat, Et Pourtant Si…

At the heart of Abstraction Works from the collection of the Fondation Gandur pour l’Art

July 2 - November 22, 2022

Fondation Maeght

The exhibition at the Fondation Maeght will show works from the collection of the Fondation Gandur pour l’Art from the 2nd of July until the 20th of November 2022 and offers an immersion in the vibrant creation of the years 1945 to 1980. Home to a collection of more than 13,000 works, Fondation Maeght is […]

At the heart of Abstraction Works from the collection of the Fondation Gandur pour l’Art

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