PRINTPROVENANCE:
Dominion Gallery, Montréal, Canada, 1963
Private collection, Canada
Sotheby's Paris, Contemporary Art Sale, December 6, 2016, lot 23
Acquired by the present owner from the above
EXHIBITED:
Georges Mathieu, Dominion Gallery, Montreal, Canada, February 1963
ILLUSTRATED:
Jacques Folch-Ribas, Mathieu et le dandysme, Vie des Arts No.31, Montreal, Summer 1963, color illustrated
Catalogue Note:
THE UNIQUELY BEAUTIFUL CREATION OF THE DANDYIST
Dollard des Ormeaux is both the name of a place and the name of a great man. Called D.D.O. or Doral for short, Dollard des Ormeaux is a suburb on the Island of Montreal in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It was named in memory of the French martyr Adam Dollard des Ormeaux, who died in battle at the age of 24 in the year 1660. Dollard des Ormeaux is an iconic figure in the colonial history of New France. In 1658, he sailed to Montreal from France and was appointed commander of the colonial garrison. Des Ormeaux is considered an important figure in the establishing of New France and a symbol of French canadian colonial culture. He has been memorialized in Canadian literature, music and drama, and public sculptures have been erected in his honor.
The Lyrical Abstraction movement, pioneered by Georges Mathieu, emerged in Europe in the late 1940s and has been a trend since the 1950s. In 1963, Mathieu was invited by a French-Canadian television channel to do live oil-painting performances. That same year, from February 22 to 23, he improvised and quickly created 10 paintings in Montreal. These, along with 30 other works of gouache on paper, were
included in a grand exhibition which opened on February 25 at the Dominion Gallery. Hommage à Dollard des Ormeaux was one of the works in this exhibition.
Mathieu excelled at fast painting. He would squeeze strips of paint directly out of the tube onto the canvas and spread pigment back and forth over a monochrome canvas like a kind of cursive script. His distinctive style used color to form linear contour and texture. In 1957, before an exhibition in Tokyo, Japan, Mathieu created 21 paintings in three days, displaying incredible physical energy and creativity. His
live painting was like a beautiful battle; the paint was a weapon in Mathieu's hand as he faced off with his canvas, fighting with color and light, using speed and improvisation to give pure representation to his
artistic passion. For his 1963 exhibition in Canada, he completed all of the paintings on display at the Dominion Gallery in Montreal in two days.
Georges Mathieu was a critical French abstract painter, a theorist, and a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts. Mathieu was born to a banking family on January 27, 1912, in Boulogne-sur-Mer in northern
France. Boulogne-sur-Mer is an ancient harbor city where several cultural heritages are preserved, and it is only a strait away from Great Britain. Mathieu’s full name was Georges-Victor-Adolphe Mathieu
d'Escaudoeuvres, a combination of glorious saints of the Middle Ages. Mathieu shared the same birthday as the classical music composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and was of a noble birth. His ancestry can
be traced back to the royal family. He studied Latin from a young age. When he was 12, his family moved to Versailles. In junior high school, he studied Greek, Russian, and Spanish. In university, he acquired a bachelor’s degree in English. All of these reflect his talent in languages. When he was growing up, his family moved to several places, and he was surrounded by monuments from the Middle Ages. That together with his noble blood made him enthusiastic about historical events. The events during the reign of Louis XIV and the romantic sentiment of absolute monarchy fomented in his heart and developed into his later unique, honorable taste.
Jacques Folch-Ribas is a famous Spanish-Canadian novelist and art critic. In 1963, Folch-ribas published an editorial in issue 31 of Vie des Arts magazine entitled ''Mathieu and Dandyism'' (Mathieu et le
dandysme) summarizing his feelings after seeing Mathieu’s exhibit. The term “dandyism” comes from the French writer Baudelaire and can be described as a form of exaggerated romanticism and artificial refinement. This term was also used to describe Baudelaire’s generation of romantics. In addition to referencing the artist’s privileged background, dandyism also infers the pursuit of personal interests and aesthetic standards rather than blindly following convention.
Jacques Folch-Ribas clearly regarded Mathieu as a worthwhile artist and admired his unique and handsome form of aesthetic. In this article, Folch-Ribas selected three oil paintings exhibited in February 1963 and one work of illustration on paper, as well as two previous works from 1959, for a lively analysis and explanation. ''Hommage à Dollard des Ormeaux was one of these works''. Folch-Ribas wrote: ''The painting takes a variation on common themes. The work Hommage à Dollard des Ormeaux , an oil painting completed live on Canadian Television, has a dull red background. Closed signs (circles, squares), which are very rare in Mathieu’s works where everything explodes and continues, are used here several times.”
In Folch-Ribas’ description of Mathieu’s gallery appearance, Mathieu is like a matador dressed up in all his fine clothes as if to say ''I salute you. When you enter the arena, you risk your life. When I paint, I only risk personal glory.” “That's the same thing!” replies the other. Mathieu created all the paintings in his Montreal exhibit in two feverish days that were like a fierce battle. The first requirement is speed, which is crucial to pass such a test.
That year, ''Hommage à Dollard des Ormeaux'' was created before a live audience in brilliant and dazzling style. Created when Mathieu was only 42 years old, the piece is mature and steady, carrying a tremendous amount of creativity and fighting spirit. In 1963, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Paris held Mathieu’s first retrospective exhibit. He was at the height of his career, a prince in the art world. This painting presents the artist's obstinate and honourable sentiments, like the young and courageous Dollard des Ormeaux. The artist pours out his feelings and salutes des Ormeaux, his respect and awe showing
through the spectacular beauty of the lines and composition.
Mathieu's paintings are full of theatrical magic and far-reaching influence. His splatter paintings predate Jackson Pollock. Performance art and live painting inspired Allan Kaprow’s Art Happenings and Yves
Klien’s Anthropometry series. Jackson Pollock and Georges Mathieu were praised by Jiro Yoshihara, the founder of the Japanese Gutai Group movement, for ''breaking away from traditional norms.''
Mathieu was also praised by André Malraux, France's culture minister, who said, ''finally, there is a Western calligrapher!'' Soichi Tominaga (1902-1980) the late director of Japan’s National Museum of Western Art also praised Mathieu as ''the greatest French painter since Picasso''. American critic Clement Greenberg, after seeing the Kootz Gallery in New York, also called Mathieu ''the most important European painter.”
Mathieu, the father of lyrical abstraction in Europe, is in the midst of the changes of our times. Regarding the long tradition of 20th century painting, he has not been afraid to put forward his opinions: hate conventionality, and dare to challenge the narrow definition of painting. “At the height of the wildest hope, chart a path of rebirth.'' Mathieu is like a scientist, creating a unique art, a theory of life. With astonishing speed, his acts of renewal and creation are like a ''psychedelic revolution.'' Mathieu was a proud fighter, an elegant dandy, and a romantic.
Dominion Gallery, Montréal, Canada, 1963
Private collection, Canada
Sotheby's Paris, Contemporary Art Sale, December 6, 2016, lot 23
Acquired by the present owner from the above
EXHIBITED:
Georges Mathieu, Dominion Gallery, Montreal, Canada, February 1963
ILLUSTRATED:
Jacques Folch-Ribas, Mathieu et le dandysme, Vie des Arts No.31, Montreal, Summer 1963, color illustrated
Catalogue Note:
THE UNIQUELY BEAUTIFUL CREATION OF THE DANDYIST
Dollard des Ormeaux is both the name of a place and the name of a great man. Called D.D.O. or Doral for short, Dollard des Ormeaux is a suburb on the Island of Montreal in southwestern Quebec, Canada. It was named in memory of the French martyr Adam Dollard des Ormeaux, who died in battle at the age of 24 in the year 1660. Dollard des Ormeaux is an iconic figure in the colonial history of New France. In 1658, he sailed to Montreal from France and was appointed commander of the colonial garrison. Des Ormeaux is considered an important figure in the establishing of New France and a symbol of French canadian colonial culture. He has been memorialized in Canadian literature, music and drama, and public sculptures have been erected in his honor.
The Lyrical Abstraction movement, pioneered by Georges Mathieu, emerged in Europe in the late 1940s and has been a trend since the 1950s. In 1963, Mathieu was invited by a French-Canadian television channel to do live oil-painting performances. That same year, from February 22 to 23, he improvised and quickly created 10 paintings in Montreal. These, along with 30 other works of gouache on paper, were
included in a grand exhibition which opened on February 25 at the Dominion Gallery. Hommage à Dollard des Ormeaux was one of the works in this exhibition.
Mathieu excelled at fast painting. He would squeeze strips of paint directly out of the tube onto the canvas and spread pigment back and forth over a monochrome canvas like a kind of cursive script. His distinctive style used color to form linear contour and texture. In 1957, before an exhibition in Tokyo, Japan, Mathieu created 21 paintings in three days, displaying incredible physical energy and creativity. His
live painting was like a beautiful battle; the paint was a weapon in Mathieu's hand as he faced off with his canvas, fighting with color and light, using speed and improvisation to give pure representation to his
artistic passion. For his 1963 exhibition in Canada, he completed all of the paintings on display at the Dominion Gallery in Montreal in two days.
Georges Mathieu was a critical French abstract painter, a theorist, and a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts. Mathieu was born to a banking family on January 27, 1912, in Boulogne-sur-Mer in northern
France. Boulogne-sur-Mer is an ancient harbor city where several cultural heritages are preserved, and it is only a strait away from Great Britain. Mathieu’s full name was Georges-Victor-Adolphe Mathieu
d'Escaudoeuvres, a combination of glorious saints of the Middle Ages. Mathieu shared the same birthday as the classical music composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and was of a noble birth. His ancestry can
be traced back to the royal family. He studied Latin from a young age. When he was 12, his family moved to Versailles. In junior high school, he studied Greek, Russian, and Spanish. In university, he acquired a bachelor’s degree in English. All of these reflect his talent in languages. When he was growing up, his family moved to several places, and he was surrounded by monuments from the Middle Ages. That together with his noble blood made him enthusiastic about historical events. The events during the reign of Louis XIV and the romantic sentiment of absolute monarchy fomented in his heart and developed into his later unique, honorable taste.
Jacques Folch-Ribas is a famous Spanish-Canadian novelist and art critic. In 1963, Folch-ribas published an editorial in issue 31 of Vie des Arts magazine entitled ''Mathieu and Dandyism'' (Mathieu et le
dandysme) summarizing his feelings after seeing Mathieu’s exhibit. The term “dandyism” comes from the French writer Baudelaire and can be described as a form of exaggerated romanticism and artificial refinement. This term was also used to describe Baudelaire’s generation of romantics. In addition to referencing the artist’s privileged background, dandyism also infers the pursuit of personal interests and aesthetic standards rather than blindly following convention.
Jacques Folch-Ribas clearly regarded Mathieu as a worthwhile artist and admired his unique and handsome form of aesthetic. In this article, Folch-Ribas selected three oil paintings exhibited in February 1963 and one work of illustration on paper, as well as two previous works from 1959, for a lively analysis and explanation. ''Hommage à Dollard des Ormeaux was one of these works''. Folch-Ribas wrote: ''The painting takes a variation on common themes. The work Hommage à Dollard des Ormeaux , an oil painting completed live on Canadian Television, has a dull red background. Closed signs (circles, squares), which are very rare in Mathieu’s works where everything explodes and continues, are used here several times.”
In Folch-Ribas’ description of Mathieu’s gallery appearance, Mathieu is like a matador dressed up in all his fine clothes as if to say ''I salute you. When you enter the arena, you risk your life. When I paint, I only risk personal glory.” “That's the same thing!” replies the other. Mathieu created all the paintings in his Montreal exhibit in two feverish days that were like a fierce battle. The first requirement is speed, which is crucial to pass such a test.
That year, ''Hommage à Dollard des Ormeaux'' was created before a live audience in brilliant and dazzling style. Created when Mathieu was only 42 years old, the piece is mature and steady, carrying a tremendous amount of creativity and fighting spirit. In 1963, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Paris held Mathieu’s first retrospective exhibit. He was at the height of his career, a prince in the art world. This painting presents the artist's obstinate and honourable sentiments, like the young and courageous Dollard des Ormeaux. The artist pours out his feelings and salutes des Ormeaux, his respect and awe showing
through the spectacular beauty of the lines and composition.
Mathieu's paintings are full of theatrical magic and far-reaching influence. His splatter paintings predate Jackson Pollock. Performance art and live painting inspired Allan Kaprow’s Art Happenings and Yves
Klien’s Anthropometry series. Jackson Pollock and Georges Mathieu were praised by Jiro Yoshihara, the founder of the Japanese Gutai Group movement, for ''breaking away from traditional norms.''
Mathieu was also praised by André Malraux, France's culture minister, who said, ''finally, there is a Western calligrapher!'' Soichi Tominaga (1902-1980) the late director of Japan’s National Museum of Western Art also praised Mathieu as ''the greatest French painter since Picasso''. American critic Clement Greenberg, after seeing the Kootz Gallery in New York, also called Mathieu ''the most important European painter.”
Mathieu, the father of lyrical abstraction in Europe, is in the midst of the changes of our times. Regarding the long tradition of 20th century painting, he has not been afraid to put forward his opinions: hate conventionality, and dare to challenge the narrow definition of painting. “At the height of the wildest hope, chart a path of rebirth.'' Mathieu is like a scientist, creating a unique art, a theory of life. With astonishing speed, his acts of renewal and creation are like a ''psychedelic revolution.'' Mathieu was a proud fighter, an elegant dandy, and a romantic.