André Cottavoz

Little Boy with Blond Hair

1955

Born in 1922 in Saint-Marcellin near the town of Grenoble in France, André Cottavoz was passionate about painting from an early age. Encouraged by his mother, an artist herself, Cottavoz entered the Fine Arts School in Lyon at the age of 18. Despite having been pressed into service during WWII, Cottavoz continued to paint and draw through the early 1940s. After the end of War he, along with Pierre Coquet a fellow student from Lyon, co-founded a group of painters who called themselves Noisme, or Sanzisme (without ism), also known as the Lyon School of New Figuration. Comprised of artists under the age of 30, their sole purpose was to paint “in the light” with no particular defining or restricting technique, rejecting all current artistic trends. In 1953 Cottavoz was awarded the Fénénon Prize by the University of Paris. Such a commendation served to boost his reputation. A close friendship of Japanese art dealer Kiyoshi Tamenaga, whom he met in 1957, opened doors to Japan for Cottavoz hosting exhibitions of his work at his gallery in Tokyo. He died in 2012.