Born in 1921 in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France
Died in 2012 in Boulogne-Billancourt, France
Georges Mathieu Committee
Across Europe and the United States, Georges Mathieu played a decisive role within abstraction during the movement’s burgeoning in the late 1940s and early 1950s. He departed from the geometrical abstractions that had dominated the previous era with a visual language that favored form over content and gesture over intent, and instead aimed for uninhibited creative expression. He termed this newfound aesthetic “lyrical abstraction,” after a description of his work by the French critic Jean José Marchand in 1947. Mathieu’s works are characterized by a calligraphic quality of line, which he achieved by using long brushes and applying paint directly from tubes onto the canvas. The immediacy and rapid execution of these distinct methods guaranteed the freedom with which he defined his work. According to Clement Greenberg, Mathieu was the most powerful among his contemporary European painters.
Mathieu’s work has been the subject of numerous retrospectives, and is in more than eighty museums and public permanent collections, including the Art Institute of Chicago; Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, DC; Kunstmuseum Basel; Kunsthaus Zürich; the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; and the Tate, London.
solo shows
2021
- Georges Mathieu, Perrotin, New York, USA, in collaboration wth Nahmad Contemporary
2019
- Georges Mathieu, Perrotin, Hong Kong, China
- Monumental Paintings, Nahmad Contemporary, New York, USA
2018
- Les années 1960-1970, Templon Gallery, Paris, France
2014
- Vers l’abstraction lyrique, Castle-Museum of Boulogne-sur-Mer, France
2006
- Little stable of the Palace of Versailles, Versailles, France
- Contemporary Art Space Fernet Branca, Saint-Louis, France
2003
- Retrospective, Galleria Credito Valtellinese, Milan, Italy
- Bénédictine Palace, Fécamp, France
- Saint-Georges and Saint-Paul Cathedrale, Liège, Belgium
2002
- Retrospective, Jeu de Paume Museum, Paris, France
1991
- Galleria arte 92, Milan, Italy
1990
- Galleria d'arte Elleni, Bergamo, Italy
- Stockholm Art Fair, Stockholm, Sweden
1989
- Galleria dello scudo, Verona, Italy
- Ermitage Museum, Saint-Petersbourg, Russia
- Centro Culturale Sant'Andrea, Savona, Italy
- Galleria Art Valley, Forte dei Marmi, Italy
- Grand Palais, Paris, France (Solo booth at FIAC)
1988
- Galleria Narciso, Turin, Italy
- Galleria De Crescenzo, Rome, Italy
- Huber Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland
1987
- Findlay Gallery, New York, USA
- Galleria La Loggia, Bologna, Italy
- Galleria De Crescenzo, Rome, Italy
1984
- Meridien Hotel, Singapore, Singapore
1980
- Art Basel, Basel, Switzerland
- Poste Museum, Paris, France
1979
- Dominion Gallery, Montreal, Canada
- Wildestein, New York, USA
1978
- Grand Palais, Paris, France
- Lyrical Art Festival, Aix-en-Provence, France
1977
- Galeria Punto, Valencia, Spain
- Galeria Valera, Bilbao, Spain
- Kursaal, Ostenda, Belgium
- International Festival, Istanbul, Turkey
1976
- Picasso Museum, Antibes, France
- Galeria Beaubourg, Barcelona, Spain
1974
- Beaubourg Gallery, Paris, France
1973
- Opera, Berlin, Germany
1972
- Art Center, Beirut, Lebanon
1971
- Stadler Gallery, Paris, France
- Lalikata Academy, New Dehli, India
1967
- Argos Gallery, Nantes, France
- Kunstverein, Köln, Germany
- Air France, National Museum of Modern Art, Paris, France
1966
- Fine Arts Museum, Nantes, France
1965
- Gimpel & Hanover, Zurich, Switzerland
- Court Gallery, Copenhagen, Denmark
- K. B. Gallery, Oslo, Norway
- Galleria il Milione, Milan, Italy
1963
- Retrospective, Museum of Modern Art of Paris, France
- Art and Culture, Geneva, Belgium
1962
- Bezalel Museum, Jerusalem, Israel
- Neue Galerie in Künstlerhaus, München, Germany
- Galleria La Bussola, Turin, Italy
- Galleria l'Ariete, Milan, Italy
- Galleria La Loggia, Bologna, Italy
- Museum of Art, Tel Aviv, Israel
1961
- Presidential Palace, Beirut, Lebanon
1960
- Museu de Arte, São Paolo, Brazil
- Ateneo, Madrid, Spain
- New London Gallery, London, United Kingdom
- Galleria del Cavallino, Venice, Italy
1959
- Kunstverein, Köln, Germany
- Galleria San Babila, Milan, Italy
- Haus Lange Museum, Krefeld, Germany
- Museum of Fine Arts, Neuchâtel, Switzerland
- Athénee Museum, Geneva, Switzerland
- Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Bonino Gallery, Buenos Aires, Argentina
1958
- Schmela Gallery, Düsseldorf, Germany
- Art Latin Gallery, Stockholm, Switzerland
- Grange Gallery, Lyon, France
- Chichio Haller Gallery, Zurich, Switzerland
- Kunstmuseum, Basel, Switzerland
- Galleria Castelnuovo, Ascona, Italy
- Museum of Fine Arts, Lièges, Belgium
1957
- Fine Art Palace, Brussels, Belgium
- Shirokiya Gallery, Tokyo, Japan
- Daimaru Gallery, Osaka, Japan
- Galleria del Naviglio, Milan, Italy
- Helios Art Gallery, Bruxelles, Belgium
- Galleria Selecta, Rome, Italy
1956
- Pierre Gallery, Paris, France
- Institute of Contemporary Art, London, United Kingdom
1955
- Alexander Iolas Gallery, New York, USA
1954
- Kootz Gallery, New York, USA
- Rive Droite Gallery, Paris, France
- Art Club, Chicago, USA
1953
- Marcel Evrard Gallery, Lille, France
1952
- Studio Paul Facchetti, Paris, France
- Stable Gallery, New York, USA
1951
- Véhémences Confrontées, Galerie Dausset, Paris, France
1950
- René Drouin Gallery, Paris, France
group shows
2021
- Odd Convergences, organized by Jean-Hubert Martin, Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow, Russia
2020
- Degree Zero: Drawing at Midcentury organized by Samantha Friedman, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
2019
- Artistic Licence (curated by Richard Prince), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
2017
- Le geste et la matière, une abstraction “autre”, Paris, 1945-1965, Pompidou Centre / Clément Foundation, Martinique
2008
- Pensieri Ordinati, Bonioni Arte, Reggio Emilia, Italy
- Estetika. Forma & segno. Da Renoir a De Chirico, Villa Ponti, Fondazione Art Museo, Arona, Italy
2007
- Nel segno della materia, Palazzo De Sanctis, Castellalto, Italy
- Sei mostre in contemporanea, Satura, Palazzo Stella, Genoa “Liberi Segni”, Galleria Biasutti & Biasutti, Turin, Italy
1999
- Posizioni. Museiondocumenta 1999: opera dalla collezione, Bolzen, Italy
1959
- Karel Appel, Georges Mathieu, Mattia Moreni, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Kunsthalle, Basel, Switzerland
1948
- H.W.P.S.M.T.B, Colette Allendy Gallery, Paris, France
1947
- Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, Paris, France
- L'imaginaire, Gallery of Luxembourg, Paris, France
1946
- VI Salon de moins de 30 ans, Galleria of Fine Arts, Paris, France
public collections
- Museum of Modern Art, New York, USA
- The Art Institute, Chicago, USA
- Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, USA
- Los Angeles Country Museum, USA
- Chase Manhattan Plaza, New York, USA
- The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, USA
- Art Museum, Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh, USA
- Seattle Art Museum, USA
- Philips Collections, Washington D.C, USA
- La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art, California, USA
- Hirshhorn Museum & Sculpture Garden (Smithsonian Institution), Washington, D.C, USA
- Tate Gallery, London, UK
- Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
- Museum of Modern Art of Paris, France
- Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Strasbourg, France
- Les Abattoirs, Toulouse, France
- Musée d'Arts de Nantes, Nantes, France
- Picasso Museum, Antibes, France
- Musée de Grenoble, France
- National Fund of Contemporary Art, Paris, France
- Museum of Fine Arts, Orléans, France
- Palace of Fine Arts, Lille, France
- LaM, Villeneuve-d’Ascq, France
- Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne, Germany
- Kaiser Wilhelm Museum, Krefeld, Germany
- Kunsthalle Praha, Prague, Czech Republic
- Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart, Germany
- Städtische Kunstsammlungen und Wilhelm Hack Stiftung, Ludvigshafen, Germany
- Modern Galerie, Saarbrucken, Germany
- Städtische Kunsthalle, Mannheim, Germany
- Museum of Fine Arts, Luik, Belgium
- Kunsthaus, Basel, Switzerland
- Museum of Fine Arts, La Chaux-de-Fonds, Switzerland
- Kunsthaus, Zurich, Switzerland
- Museum of Modern Art, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
- Museum of Modern Art, São Paulo, Brazil
- Museum of Contemporary Arts, Montreal, Canada
- Art Gallery, Ontario, Canada
- National Museum Bezalel, Jerusalem, Israel
- Museum of Arts, Tel Aviv, Israel
- Art Museum of Ohara, Kurashiki, Japan
- Gutaï Pinacotheca, Osaka, Japan
- Museum of Modern Arts, Tokyo, Japan
