Gérard Sendrey

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Gérard Sendrey (born March 12, 1928 in Bordeaux ) was an administrative officer in Bordeaux and until 1988 mayor of Bègles . He has been a painter since 1967 and head of the Musée de la Creation Franche Bègles from 1989 to 2009 .

biography

Gérard Sendrey grew up in a family in which art was not an issue. Nevertheless, he showed an early interest in painting and sculpture . In his childhood and youth he painted and drew sporadically again and again, but without pursuing this activity.

It was only around 1967 that he began to spend his free time exclusively painting and drawing, without this being known in his private or professional environment. Drawing later became his preferred means of expression. Sendrey's early drawings show intricately crafted geometrical signs that create a packed pictorial space from which figures or faces emerge.

After twelve years of intensive work in the seclusion of his apartment, he ventured to the public for the first time in 1979 in the “Galerie du Fleuve” in Paris. It was here that Michel Thévoz , the director of the Art Brut Collection in Lausanne , discovered it and later described it as his most important discovery. His works are subject to the principle of series and metamorphosis. They emerged from the examination of the various materials, such as acrylic paint or gouache paint or ink on paper and cardboard. They testify to his obsessive way of working and his expressive freedom.

Within a year, Sendrey's works were included in all the major Art Brut collections in Europe, such as the Collection de l'Art Brut, L'Aracine in Lille , the Musée Art en Marge in Brussels , La Fabuloserie in Dicy and the Museum de Stadshof in Zwolle .

His later found its way into museums in the United States, including the American Folk Art Museum in New York, the Milwaukee Art Museum and the Anthony Petullo Collection in Milwaukee .

Musée de la Creation Franche

When he retired in 1989, he founded the “Site de la Creation Franche” in a dilapidated house that the city of Bégles made available to him, with the support of Michel Thévoz. This received the status of a municipal museum in 1996 and has been called the “Musée de la Creation Franche” ever since.

The museum promotes French, self-taught artists and, in addition to artists from Art Brut, also exhibits those from related areas of art. At the end of 2009 he gave up management of the museum.

The Gerard Sendrey Prize

The prize is awarded to the students of Stong College at York University (Toronto) and was donated by Gerard Sendrey to honor outstanding achievements in the "fine arts". The winner will be determined from among the participants in the “Stong's Annual Student Show”.

Exhibitions

Between his first exhibition in the “Galerie du Fleuve” (Paris 1979) and the last retrospective in the “Musée de la Creation Franche” (Bégles December 12, 2009 - January 24, 2010) his works were presented in numerous exhibitions, but they are was hardly shown in the German-speaking area.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Raw Vision, No. 67, Fall 2009, p. 8

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Sendrey, Gérard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French painter and museum director
DATE OF BIRTH March 12, 1928
PLACE OF BIRTH Bordeaux