Alfred Manessier
Alfred Manessier (born December 5, 1911 in Saint-Ouen on the Somme , † August 1, 1993 in Orléans ) was a French painter .
Life
Manessier first enrolled in the architecture class of the École des Beaux-Arts in Amiens in 1926 . From 1929 to 1933 he studied art at the École des Beaux Arts in Paris , where he also studied at the Louvre . In 1935 he became a student of Roger Bissière at the Académie Ranson and became friends with Jean Le Moal . He quickly leaned towards Cubism , but later surrealist influences also found their way into his work. In 1938 he settled in Paris, participated annually from 1942 to 1949 at the “Salon d'Automne”, in 1943 at the “Salon de Mai”, of which he was co-founder, and in 1944 at the “Salon de la Liberation” in the Musée National d'Art Modern part in Paris. He was a member of the Association des Écrivains et Artistes Révolutionnaires AEAR.
After a stay in the Trappist monastery La Grande Trappe in Soligny , he switched to religious themes in his work. He preferred bright colors with mosaic structures overlaid with expressive linear shapes; from there he came to glass painting . He designed the windows of the crypt of the St. Gereon Church in Cologne , the crypt of the Essen collegiate church , the windows of the All Saints Church in Basel and the Church of Our Lady in Bremen .
In the 1950s and 1960s Manessier was one of the most important representatives of the École de Paris . The structure of his painting was now looser with an even more intense color scheme, which also contributed to travel impressions from Provence , Spain and Holland . The painting The Crown of Thorns (1950) in the “Musée National d'Art Moderne” represents this work phase. A visit to Spain in 1966 brought about further harmonization and the start of a series of paintings in the style of lyrical abstraction ( Ländliches Fest , 1974).
Alfred Manessier was one of the masters of abstraction in France . In 1993 he died from the consequences of a traffic accident on the night of July 31st to August 1st. He was buried in his native Saint-Ouen (Somme).
Awards and honors
- 1953: First prize for painting at the Biennale de São Paulo .
- 1954: Prize of the exhibition "Sacred Art" in Vienna .
- 1958: Prize of the "Institut International d'Art Liturgique" at the 29th Venice Biennale .
- 1962: Grand International Prize at the 31st Venice Biennale.
Exhibitions (selection)
- 1955: documenta 1 , Kassel .
- 1955: Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels .
- 1955: Stedelijk van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven .
- 1958: Kestnergesellschaft , Hanover ; Folkwang Museum , Essen; Gemeentemuseum The Hague ; Kunsthaus Zurich , Zurich . (Retrospective)
- 1959: documenta II .
- 1964: documenta III .
literature
- Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen (Hrsg.): Insights. The 20th century in the North Rhine-Westphalia Art Collection, Düsseldorf. Hatje Cantz Verlag, Ostfildern-Ruit 2000, ISBN 3-7757-0853-7 .
- Manessier - Lumières du Nord, La Renaissance du Livre, ISBN 2-8046-0421-7 ( Source: Werner Kittel art archive in the central archive of the State Museums in Berlin )
- Werner Schmalenbach (Ed.): Alfred Manessier. Kestner Society, Hanover 1958.
Web links
- Literature by and about Alfred Manessier in the catalog of the German National Library
- Window of the Church of Our Dear Women in Bremen
- Materials by and about Alfred Manessier in the documenta archive
Individual evidence
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Manessier, Alfred |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | French painter |
| DATE OF BIRTH | December 5, 1911 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Saint-Ouen (Somme) |
| DATE OF DEATH | August 1, 1993 |
| Place of death | Orleans |