By Claude Venard
Located in New York, NY
Claude Venard (French, 1913 - 1999)
Venice Canal, Italy, circa 1950-55
Oil on canvas
24 x 24 inches
Signed lower center
Provenance:
Private Collection, Massachusetts
The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Galerie Felix Vercel.
Claude Venard was a notable exponent of the French mid-century post-Cubist movement. He was born to bourgeois parents from Burgogne in Paris, on March 21, 1913. At the age of 17, he enrolled and attended the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, but remained for only two days, not adhering to the school's academic style. Instead, he spent the following six years at the École des Arts Appliqués, taking evening classes and embracing the contemporary Parisian art scene, all the while becoming recognized in its circles.
Not able to support himself as an artist, by 1936 he found employment as a restorer at the Louvre, further honing his artistic skills.
Paris of the period was dominated by an art trend that strongly favored abstraction. Following a group show at the Galerie Billet-Worms in 1935, art critic Waldemar George declared: "Let's be young again! Painting is not dead… Its course has not stopped. Forces Nouvelles is born."
Venard contributed and initially adhered to the strict disciplines of the Forces Nouvelle group. But as with many of his fellow members, he soon abandoned it seeking individual expression.
Following WWII, Venard rekindled friendships with past Forces Nouvelles members, joining Pierre Tal-Coat, André Marchand, André Civet...
Category
1950s Cubist Michel Kritz
