Biography from Rogallery.com:
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French abstract painter Claude Bellegarde was born in Paris in
1927. He studied drawing and sculpture at a private studio and
then began to work independently. During the 1940s following the war
Bellegarde became acquainted with the spiritualist Lanza del Vasto, a
disciple of Gandhi, and studied the liberal philosophy of Krisnamurti.
He
first painted figurative pictures, followed by works of tachism* akin
to Rorschach tests and then expressionistic* abstract paintings.
His first solo show was held at the Centre Saint-Jacques, Paris, 1952.
Between
1953 and 1957, Bellegarde produced his first major body of work known
as Achromaticism (White Period), a series of textured monochrome*
abstract works. During this period he became established as significant
member of the young post-war generation of artists in Paris.
In
1954, he joined the avant-garde group Dessins*, which advocated
gestural abstraction. The same year Paul Facchetti organized an
exhibition, "Signifiants de l’Informel", at his gallery in Paris, which
featured the work of Fautrier, Mathieu, Dubuffet, Riopelle, Michaux and
Bellegarde. Bellegarde also held a solo show at Galerie Arnaud,
and participated in a group show at the Museum of Modern Art in
Dusseldorf.
Bellegarde first exhibited his White paintings in
1955 at Galerie Facchetti, the same gallery which first presented
Jackson Pollack to the French public. Following this solo show,
which was championed by the critic Pierre Restany, he began exhibiting
his work in Germany, Belgium, England and especially Italy where, as
early as 1956, his work was very successful. In Milan, his white
paintings impressed Lucio Fontana, who purchased one, and influenced
Manzoni.
A painting from this period was acquired by the Musée de Beaux-Arts de Lille in 1956 and The Bird 11, 1957
was purchased by the Tate Gallery, London in 1959. Bellegarde was
awarded the international Premio Lissonne, Milan in 1959 and again in
1961.
During the 80s, Galerie Bernard-Davignon in Paris did its
utmost to refocus attention on this period, holding several exhibitions
and also publishing the book Achromaticism 1953-1957, and in 1985, the Fond National d'Art Contemporain purchased Atonal, 1957, which now hangs in the Musée Cantini, Marseilles. In 1995, Raoul Jean Moulin acquired a large crushed paper work, Displacement of Space, 1957,
for the collection of the future Musée d’Art Contemporain Val-de-Marne,
and in 2004 the Musée d’Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou acquired Nothing Else, 1954 and The Threshold, 1955.
Pure
color appeared in his work of the early 60s and in 1963 he wrote his
first manifesto on the origins of color and their symbolism*.
This was followed by an exhibition of his Typograms, abstract psychological portraits, at Galerie Blumenthal, Paris. A painting Typogram of a plant, 1963 is at the Centre Nationale d'Art Contemporain in Paris.
In
1964, invited to an international art symposium at Fairleigh Dickinson
University, New Jersey, Bellegarde conceived his first Cabines
Chromatiques or Psycolor Cubicles. A painting of the cubicle
project from this period Research for man, 1964 is at the Guggenheim
Museum in New York.
Returning to France he was asked to
construct a cubicle for chromotherapy for the clinic of Doctor A.
Tomatis, which brought about his research on the effects of color on
mentally disturbed patients. These experiences enriched his pictorial
expression and led him to publish several manifestos and articles and
to produce a large body of work which spans a decade, titled Human Nature. A painting of this period, History of the Eye, 1967 was recently aquired by the Musée des Beaux Arts de Lyon.
Bellegarde
was selected to represent France at the 1965 International Sao Paulo
Biennale and the same year he was awarded First prize for France at the
1965 Biennale de San Marino, Italy. In 1971, he was awarded a
major retrospective at the Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris.
During
the mid 70s, Bellegarde sought out new materials, which would more
closely reflect organic matter: rice paper, wooden leaves of paper and
finally wooden scrolls. These Scrolls provided him with just such a
textured surface on which human forms, vegetation, earth, sky and fire
could be inscribed and his fascination with them lasted for almost
twenty years.
He completed a doctoral degree at the Sorbonne,
Paris in 1983, and lectured extensively at symposiums and conferences
and also completed several architecture, film, theatre, music and
poetry projects. Bellegarde was conferred the title of Chevalier
des Arts et Lettres by the French minister of culture Jack Lang in 1985.
The new millennium marks the beginning of two new series of paintings: Ephemeral and Gray-Light. The French daily Humanité commissioned a large painting Gaze on Humanity, 2004, which was exhibited at the Fête de l’Humanité. Also a large tapestry, The Color of Perception, woven at Manufacture Gobelins, was commissioned for the Mobilier National Collection in Paris.
Today Claude Bellegarde lives in Paris and continues his quest for color.
The
artist is represented in numerous major modern art museums world-wide
including Musée d’Art Moderne, Paris; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris;
Centre National d’Art Contemporain, Paris; Musée Cantini, Marseilles;
Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lille; Tate Gallery, London; Solomon Guggenheim
Museum, New York; Tokyo Museum of Modern Art; Museo d’Arte
Contemporanea di Lissone; National Gallery of Canada as well as
Wuppertal; Belgrade; Skopje; Geneva; San Marino.
Awards and Acknowledgements
1987- First Prize Encuentro de Grabado, Museo Nacional Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Havana
1995- Prize. XI Bienal de Grabado Latinoamericano y del Caribe, San Juan, Puerto Rico
1997- Grand Prix. Salón Nacional de Grabado, Havana
2005- Distinction For National Culture, Havana
*For more in-depth information about these terms and others, see
AskART.com Glossary
http://www.askart.com/AskART/lists/Art_Definition.aspx
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