Olivier Debré

Born in Paris in 1920 and died in June 1999, Olivier Debré was a painter belonging to the lyrical abstraction movement. Before devoting himself to painting in the 1940s, he studied architecture at the École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts de Paris in the studio of his uncle Jacques Debat-Ponsan. For him, architecture was an extension of art. He attended Le Corbusier's studio in parallel with his studies, and befriended Pablo Picasso in 1941, a friendship that would influence his work. Today considered a major player in lyrical abstraction, he is internationally recognized, and his work is included in major collections (Strasbourg, Musée d'Art moderne et contemporain; Paris, Musée national d'Art moderne, Centre Pompidou; Rio de Janeiro, Museu de Arte moderna; Amman, The Jordan Museum; Taipei, Taipei Museum of Fine Arts; Cardiff, Fine Arts Museum...). His paintings inspired the ballet "Signes" conceived by choreographer Carolyn Carlso and presented at the Opéra Bastille in 2003.