Claude Viallat

Born in Nîmes in 1936, Claude Viallat is a contemporary French painter. Having studied at the École des Beaux-Arts de Montpellier from 1955 to 1959, then at the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris from 1962 to 1963, it was in 1966 that he adopted a process based on prints, marking the beginning of his distinctive artistic approach. His work is characterized by the use of a rounded, almost cross-shaped rectangle, which he repeats on stretcherless canvases. He draws his influence from the work of artists such as Matisse, Picasso, Simon Hantaï and Jackson Pollock, while criticizing lyrical abstraction. Claude Viallat is a founding member of the Supports/Surfaces group, which places equal importance on materials, the artist's gestures and the work itself. Claude Viallat has taught at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, as well as in Marseille and Nîmes - where he served as director. His work has been exhibited in France, including a solo show at the Centre Pompidou in 1982, as well as abroad, at the Venice Biennale in 1988, where he represented France, and at the Buenos Aires Museum of Contemporary Art in 2022.