Georges Noël

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Georges-Noël Bédard , with the stage name Georges Noël , (born December 25, 1924 in Béziers , † November 26, 2010 in Paris ) was a French painter .

life and work

Georges Noël was born in Béziers in 1924 to a Catalan family. From 1938 he studied engineering in Pau , where he had also spent his childhood. In his free time he was engaged in drawing and painting . After the Second World War , he worked as a draftsman and graphic designer for the Turboméca aviation company for nine years . In 1956 he moved to Paris, where he developed friendly relations with the artists of the Nouveau Réalisme . He studied the art of Jean Dubuffet , Jean Fautrier , Arman , Yves Klein and Raymond Hains . Brassaï's " graffiti " photographs , as well as automation in art, were also to have a strong influence on his own work.

In the years 1958/1959 he developed a special technique of impasto, material-containing painting, which enabled him to write into the matter, to scratch it. He used powdered pigments, sand and glue ( polyvinyl acetate ) and spread the mixture on the canvas. In a gestural-automatic manner, Noël scratched the partly soft, partly hardened layer of paint with scriptural elements or symbolic signs and thus developed the pictures he called palimpsest . With the term Noel refers to the beginning of writing in stone and clay tablets in early cultures, the erasure and re-engraving of writing elements. His vocabulary of signs shows his interest in the magic, symbolism and mystery of prehistoric, Mycenaean-archaic and indigenous cultures. From 1957 to 1968 Noël was represented in Paris by the Paul Facchetti Gallery . During this time he exhibited regularly in Europe and the USA. The friendship between Facchetti and Margarete Lauter in Mannheim resulted in several presentations by the artist in the Mannheim gallery from 1965 onwards. Roberto Peccolo in Livorno also realized several individual presentations by the artist.

In the 1960s, Noël gradually developed his very own lyrical-gestural sign language made up of writing and symbols. Some of his works show a proximity to the typefaces of Cy Twombly , whose interest was, however, the origin of writing and less the content and symbolism of the signs. The works of this time show a proximity to lyrical abstraction and Informel . Noël also studied the writings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin and began looking for more spirituality in art. In 1964 he toured the east coast of the United States and studied the minimalist art of Agnes Martin there . Also in 1964, works by him (three of his palimpsests ) were shown at the documenta III in Kassel in the painting department .

In 1968 he became a lecturer at the Minneapolis School of Art . In 1969 he moved into an apartment in New York City . During this time he began to turn his art towards geometric abstraction , without completely giving up the gestural style of his earlier works. In the USA his work was represented by the Pace Gallery and the Arnold Herstand Gallery. Noël has returned to Paris sporadically since 1976. From 1982 he then settled back permanently in Paris. In 1980 a comprehensive retrospective took place in the Lauter Gallery with pictures, reliefs and gouaches from the years 1958–1980. An exhibition at the Abbaye de Senanque followed in 1982 and a retrospective at the Center National des Arts Plastiques in Paris in 1985. In recent years his works have been shown in the Paris galleries Thessa Herold and Catherine Putman. In 2015, an overview exhibition took place in the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris on the occasion of the donation of a group of works by the artist.

He was married to the art historian Margit Rowell.

Literature and Sources

  • documenta III. International exhibition ; Catalog: Volume 1: Painting and Sculpture; Volume 2: Hand Drawings; Volume 3: Industrial Design, Graphics; Kassel / Cologne 1964.
  • Barbara Rose: Georges Noël, Galerie Christian Cheneau, Paris 1986.
  • Georges Noël: de porte magique à cosmogonie . Kunsthalle Mannheim 1996. ISBN 978-3-891-65103-2 .
  • Gladys C Fabre; Michel Butor; Philippe-Alain Michaud: Georges Noël, Édition de la Différence, Paris 1997.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Georges Noel, Facchetti Gallery. Retrieved March 2, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Lauter Gallery, Georges Noel. Retrieved March 2, 2020 .
  3. ↑ Rudi Baerwind - Georges Noël , Margarete Lauter Gallery , Mannheim 1965. [1]
  4. ↑ Georges Noel, Roberto Peccolo. Retrieved March 2, 2020 .
  5. ↑ Georges Noël: Retrospective of the pictures, reliefs and gouaches from the years 1958-1980. Galerie Lauter, Mannheim 1980 ( worldcat.org [accessed March 2, 2020]).
personal data
SURNAME Noël, Georges
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bédard, Georges-Noël (real name); Bédard, Georges Noël
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French painter
DATE OF BIRTH December 25, 1924
PLACE OF BIRTH Beziers
DATE OF DEATH November 26, 2010
Place of death Paris