René Duvillier 1919-2002

Born in 1919, René Duvillier joins the Ecole des Beaux-Arts of Paris in 1935. Duvillier however defines himself as autodidact stating that the only thing he got out of his time at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts was “learning what not to do”. After five years of captivity in Ukraine and Poland during World War II a defining moment comes in 1952 when Duvillier meets the influential art critic Charles Estienne. Through Charles Estienne Duvillier meets Serge Poliakoff, Jean Degottex, Hans Hartung and Charles Lapicque and becomes part of the “Nouvelle Ecole de Paris” which under the guidance of the art critic Charles Estienne gathered painters from Surrealism and gestural or lyrical abstraction. In 1953 Duvillier exhibits together with Jean Degottex, Marcelle Loubchansky and Jean Messagier in the Galerie L’étolie scellée owned by the founding father of surrealism, André Breton. Also in 1953 Duvillier takes part in the exhibition “Younger European Painters” at the Guggenheim Museum in New York.

Although close to Degottex, Hartung and Messagier, Duvillier was however independent. And if, his gestural painting may have affected Breton, in which he found a form of surrealist automatism, his lyricism is much more oriented towards the nature.

Despite the international recognition, Duvillier could nevertheless still be overwhelmed. It is the sea in Brittany that created “a terrible choc” for him when he was invited in 1954 by Charles Estienne on the wild coast of North Finistere. “I found the movement and the gesture there. Everything was moving, the waves, the shore, the sky, the birds. I was especially struck by the spectacle of the Breton horses, manes flowing in the wind, springing out of the foam. I also found the ancient Greek myth of the birth of the sea”.

This experience gave inspiration for a series of polychrome works with the sea and seahorses as the theme.

Although the themes changed over the years in the work of Duvillier it was always about nature – from minimal movements of waves and air. From the seahorses in Argenton to planets and to whirlwinds, the world painted by René Duvillier connects the personal to the universal and the human to the cosmos. It was the man of the myth and the vertigo, between paradoxes and successive shocks, a generous, rigorous and instinctive humanist. “I am emotional and passionate, the painter said (…) I’m not looking for simplification, or a synthesis ; I am moving on all fronts, I have to keep my totality”. He faced the material and his imagination fed on life. His dynamic and gestural painting associates the almost monochrome to the brightest colors.

Principal exhibitions:

1953: “Younger European Painters”, Guggenheim Museum, New York
1955: First solo exhibition in Paris at the Galerie L’Etoile Scellée
1959: Solo exhibition, Galerie Smith, Bruxelles
Solo exhibition, Galerie Breteau, Paris
1960: Solo exhibition, Maison des Princes, Pérouges
“Antagonismes”, Musée des arts décoratifs, Paris
“New trends in French painting”, Bader Gallery, Washington
“Junge Maler de Gegenwart”, Künstlerhaus, Vienna
1961: Solo exhibition, Galerie Smith, Bruxelles
1962: Solo exhibition, Galerie Schoeller, Paris
Solo exhibition, Galerie 7, Paris
“Four Men Show”, Nitta Gallery, Tokyo
1964: Solo exhibition, Byron Gallery, New York
1966: Solo exhibition, Galerie Schoeller, Paris
1967: Exhibition at the French Pavillon, World Fair, Montréal
Solo exhibition, Eurogalerie, Montreux
“Dix ans d’art vivant 1955-1965”, Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence
1968: “Une aventure de l’art abstrait”, Musée Galliera, Paris
“Trois ans d’Art vivant 1965-1968”, Fondation Maeght, Saint-Paul-de-Vence
“Contemporary French Painting”, Museums of Belgrade, Prague, Bucharest, Warsav, Zagreb
Solo exhibition, Eurogalerie, Genève
1969: Solo exhibition, Palais des Congrès, Vienna
Solo exhibition, Maxigalerie Roger et Gallet, Paris
1970: Solo exhibition, Galerie Armand Zerbib, Paris
“Trois tendances de l’art Français contemporain”, Museums of Hannover, Munich, Cologne, Mons, Anvers, Bruxelles, Dublin, Lisbon, Porto, Milan and Florence
“Ensemble des peintures de Duvillier”, Palais des Expositions, Genève
1972: Solo exhibition, ”Parcours, Peintures de 1954 à 197l”, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
1973: ”Le Nuagisme même”, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon
1975: Solo exhibition, Galerie Beno d’Incelli, Paris
Solo exhibition, Galerie Soleil, Paris
1976: Solo exhibition, Galerie Soleil, Paris
Collections of abstract art, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes, Musée du Havre and Musée de
Quimper
1982: The permanent collection, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
“Paris-Paris, 1937-1957”, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
1988: Rétrospective exhibition, Maison des Arts de Créteil
1989: Rétrospective exhibition, Musée de Morlaix
1990: “Duvillier de 10 en 10”, Ministry of Education, Paris
”What are the museums buying?”, FRAM Bretagne
“Initiation”, École supérieure internationale d’Art, Paris
”André Breton”, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris
”André Breton”, Museo Nacional, Madrid
1993: Solo exhibition, Galerie Larock-Granoff, Paris
1994: Galerie P. et N. l’Eplattenier, Lausanne, Schwitzerland
1995: ”Nantes and the surrealism 1944-1995”, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes
1996: “Panoramas 1981-1996”, Collections du Frac Bretagne, Musée des Jacobins, Morlaix
1997: “Un combat pour l’art moderne”, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon
“Restauration-Conservation”, CAC, Abbaye de Beaulieu
1998: Solo exhibition, Galerie Larock-Granoff, Paris
1999: Solo exhibition, Galerie Larock-Granoff, Paris
“Actualité des collections du XXe siècle 1996-1999”, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lyon
Solo exhibition, Galerie Alain Margaron, Paris
“Figuration-non Figuration”, CAC de Larissa, Greece

2000: Solo exhibition, Galerie Alain Margaron, Paris
2001: Solo exhibition, Galerie Alain Margaron, Paris
2002: Solo exhibition, Galerie Alain Margaron, Paris
2003: Solo exhibition, Galerie Doris Benno, Saint-Paul-de-Vence
2004: Rétrospective exhibition, Galerie Alain Margaron, Paris
2006: Solo exhibition, Galerie Alain Margaron, Paris