Andre Civet

Claude Vénard has a distinct style — it’s post-Cubist in its composition and he progressively accentuated the chromaticism of his palette up to reaching the crudest of colors, which he used in very thick forms and sometimes applied with a pallet knife.

Vénard was born in France in 1913 and, dedicating himself fully to making paintings at the age of 17, he studied at the École des Arts Appliqués for six years, having fled the Académie des Beaux-Arts after just 48 hours. In 1938 he signed the Rupture manifesto and participated in the first exhibition of the influential group Forces Nouvelles, alongside Francis Gruber and Pierre Tal-Coat at the Galerie Billiet-Vorms. A close affinity subsequently developed among these painters and together they were instrumental in forging the aesthetic of the immediate postwar period of the Ecole de Paris.

Vénard quickly became known for his rich impasto and varying texture. He received critical acclaim and was personally championed by Andre Salmon and Waldemar George, who described his painting as “Apocalyptic art! Beings and everyday things suddenly regain their meaning. Emotional values are once more felt.”

Vénard’s distinct and alluring compositions developed through a post-Cubist system that oscillates between abstraction and naturalism. He opens up perspectives projecting spatial vistas into every part of the canvas, in accordance with an emotional rather than a physical order. Familiar objects arise in the midst of a network of striations and hatching. Colors grow more intense in certain zones to stress the solidity of the composition; in other zones the light is more tenuous and diaphanous, as if to indicate space of different emotional intensity.

Find original Claude Vénard paintings and prints on 1stDibs.

(Biography provided by Gallery of the Masters)

Painting is an art form that has spanned innumerable cultures, with artists using the medium to tell stories, explore and communicate ideas and express themselves. To bring abstract, landscape and still-life paintings into your home is to celebrate and share in the long tradition of this discipline.

When we look at paintings, particularly those that originated in the past, we learn about history, other cultures and countries of the world. Like every other work of art, paintings — whether they are contemporary creations or works that were made during the 19th century — can often help us clearly see and understand the world around us in a meaningful and interesting way.

Cave walls were the canvases for what were arguably the world’s first landscape paintings, which depict natural scenery through art. Portrait paintings and drawings, which, along with sculpture, were how someone’s appearance was recorded prior to the advent of photography, are at least as old as Ancient Egypt. In the Netherlands, landscapes were a major theme for painters as early as the 1500s. Later, artists in Greece, Rome and elsewhere created vast wall paintings to decorate stately homes, churches and tombs. Today, creating a wall of art is a wonderful way to enhance your space, showcase beautiful pieces and tie an interior design together.

No matter your preference, whether you favor Post-Impressionist paintings, animal paintings, Surrealism, Pop art or another movement or specific period, arranging art on a blank wall allows you to evoke emotions in a room while also showing off your tastes and interests. A symmetrical wall arrangement may comprise a grid of four to six pieces or, for an odd number of works, a horizontal row. Asymmetrical arrangements, which may be small clusters of art or large, salon-style gallery walls, have a more collected and eclectic feel. Download the 1stDibs app, which includes a handy “View on Wall” feature that allows you to see how a particular artwork will look on a particular wall, and read about how to arrange wall art. And if you’re searching for the perfect palette for your interior design project, what better place to turn than to the art world’s masters of color?

On 1stDibs, you’ll find an expansive collection of paintings and other fine art for your home or office. Browse abstract paintings, portrait paintings, paintings by popular artists and more today.