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Jacques GermainComposition1971
1971
$85,000
£66,178.20
€75,263.66
CA$122,269.98
A$134,335.32
CHF 70,204.46
MX$1,602,059.94
NOK 888,978.45
SEK 828,158.40
DKK 562,405.56
About the Item
Waterline Fine Art, Austin, TX is pleased to present the following work:
Jacques Germain
Composition, 1971
Oil on canvas
76.75 x 51 in.
78.75 x 53 in. (framed)
Custom framed in a solid maple floater with an heirloom white finish.
Provenance
Private Collection, France
Born in Paris in 1915, Jacques Germain emerged as a central figure in the post-war Abstraction Lyrique movement, contributing to the European response to American Abstract Expressionism, alongside his peers such as Georges Mathieu, Maria Helena Vieira da Silva, and Jean-Paul Riopelle. He began his arts education at the Académie Moderne, studying under Fernand Léger and Amédée Ozenfant. In 1931, at the age of 16, he enrolled at the Bauhaus in Dessau, Germany, where he was mentored by Wassily Kandinsky. After a brief return to Paris the following year, he soon returned to Germany to study with constructivist painter Willi Baumeister. During this period, Germain met literary critic and translator Marthe Robert, whom he later married, forging a significant personal and intellectual bond.
The outbreak of World War II in interrupted Germain’s early career, as he was captured and held as a prisoner of war in Germany for more than three years. Liberated after the war, he returned to Paris and devoted himself to painting, marking his public debut at the Salon des Surindépendants in 1947. Initially experimenting with geometric abstraction, Germain soon developed a distinctive style defined by vigorous gestural expression, characterized by fragmented rectangular forms, and enlivened by vibrant chromatic accents. This emotive and lyrical approach, praised for its intensity, established him as a leading post-war abstract painter. In 1958, art historian Michel Seuphor positioned Germain within a lineage of French artists, including Jean Bazaine, Maurice Estève, and Frédéric Lombard, who advanced the coloristic tradition of Robert Delaunay.
By the end of the 1940s, Germain’s avant-garde credentials were evident through his participation in the Blanc et Noir exhibition at the Galerie des Deux Îles in Paris, alongside luminaries such as Jean Arp, Camille Bryen, Jean Fautrier, Francis Picabia, Hans Hartung, Otto Wols, and Antoni Tàpies. In 1949, he held his first solo exhibition in Paris, and also showed with Pierre Soulages at the Atelier de Maywald. This was followed by a group show two years later, featuring Sonia Delaunay, Kandinsky, Soulages, Alberto Magnelli, and Hartung. His commitment to non-figurative art deepened through regular participation in the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, established in 1946 to champion abstract art, and the prestigious École de Paris exhibitions at Galerie Charpentier, where he showed alongside Jean Atlan, Hartung, Soulages, and Serge Poliakoff.
Germain’s international stature grew in the 1950s and 1960s, with his work featured in major exhibitions in both the United States and Europe. He held numerous solo exhibitions at esteemed European galleries, including Maeght, Pierre Loeb, Michel Warren, André Schoeller, Jacques Massol, Dina Vierny, Arnoux, Barbier-Beltz, and Kriegel. Jacques Germain died on July 17, 2001 in Paris. His works in prominent private and institutional collections worldwide, including the Centre Pompidou, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris, Musée de Beaux-Arts, Lausanne, Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo, among many others.
Sources: Hanina Fine Arts and other various sources.
- Creator:Jacques Germain (1915-2001, French)
- Creation Year:1971
- Dimensions:Height: 76.75 in (194.95 cm)Width: 51 in (129.54 cm)
- Medium:
- Movement & Style:
- Period:
- Condition:Overall very good and stable condition. This work has been professionally cleaned and stabilized with a protective semi-gloss varnish. Sporadic, minuscule flakes and losses, commensurate with extreme impasto application. Not examined under UV light.
- Gallery Location:Austin, TX
- Reference Number:1stDibs: LU2287217170642
Jacques Germain
Jacques Germain was a pupil of the Modern Academy, directed by Fernand Léger and Amédée Ozenfant, when Blaise Cendrars and Fernand Léger, in 1931, advised his parents to send him to the Bauhaus. He arrived in Dessau in October 1931, the only French student to study at the Bauhaus as a pupil of Kandinsky. Then, he goes to Frankfurt, where he follows the courses of the constructivist painter Willi Baumeister. With the arrival of the Nazis in power, he returned to Paris and worked in advertising design. In September 1936, Germain completed his military service, the war broke out a few years later, the artist was taken prisoner and remained in captivity for three years. When he returned to France, he devoted himself mainly to painting. In 1949, he made his first solo show in Paris.
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