Georges Noël
Béziers (Francia) 1924 - Parigi, 2010
Georges Noël's plastic language draws from Informal Art, from which he borrows different forms of expression such as gesture, sign and matter. The years '56-57 represented the period in which the historical development of this artistic trend is taking place; Noël is fully aware of this and seeks his way with giddy energy. Through the automatism of gestures he wants to restore in painting the sensations, the illusion, the mystification, the energy, the invisible elements of nature that he had memorized. Noël, while feeling symbiotic with the Informal movement born of Existentialism, seeks to develop a painting-writing of "movement" drawing directly from his personal experiences.
Between 1939 and 1945 he took courses in painting and drawing in Pau, and from 1940 to 1944 he studied engineering. In the following decade he worked as a draftsman and aircraft designer at Turboméca in Pau, but from 1955 he devoted himself entirely to painting and from 1956 he settled in Paris, in the Montparnasse district, near Yves Klein's Atelier. Georges Noël's plastic language draws from Informal Art, from which he borrows different forms of expression such as gesture, sign and material.
The years '56-57 represented the period in which the historical development of this artistic trend is taking place; Noël is fully aware of this and seeks his way with dizzying energy. Through the automatism of gestures he wants to restore in painting the sensations, illusion, mystification, energy, and invisible elements of nature that he had memorized. Noël, while feeling symbiotic with the Informal movement born of Existentialism, tries to develop a painting-writing of "movement" drawing directly from his personal experiences. As early as 1957 he began to develop "Palimpsests," using large pieces of fine paper and silk paper that he spreads over the material, integrating them into the canvas. From 1957 he completely eliminates form from his works, discovers polyvinyl acetate to which, in 1959, he will add silicon powder and natural pigments. This combination of materials allows him to make very particular impastos.
In 1958, at the suggestion of the art critic Michel Ragon, he visited Paul Facchetti's Gallery and came out with the agreement to regularly supply works and participate in exhibitions organized by it. Indeed, the first historical exhibitions of Informal Art had already been held here: "Signifiants de l'informel" in 1951-1952 and "Un art autre" in 1952, under the patronage of Michel Tapié. Many of Noël's works would enter Paul Facchetti's personal collection and his museum in Buffalo, USA.
In 1959, on the occasion of the gallery's tenth anniversary, Facchetti organized a group show with works by Noël, Jean Dubuffet, Camille Bryen, Sam Francis, Pollock, Georges Mathieu, Henri Michaux, Wols, Fautrier, and Kemeny Seymour Knox.
Here, in 1960 Noël held his first solo exhibition presented by critic Charles Estienne and accompanied by a catalog. That same year the international Milanese magazine Metro, founded by Bruno Alfieri, devoted no less than 32 pages to him.
The following year Noël has the opportunity to travel to Italy for a solo exhibition at Galleria Lorenzelli in Milan. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog with texts by Bruno Alfieri. Bruno Lorenzelli buys 150 canvases by the artist from Paul Facchetti, and Giuseppe Marchioli and Gillo Dorfles take an interest in his work. Also in 1961, Galerie Facchetti organized another solo show for him, with a catalog written by René Berger, director of the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lausanne.
Intense is also participation in the Salons: Salon des Réalités Nouvelles in 1959 and 1965; Biennale in 1959 and 1963; Salon Comparaison in 1960; Salon International des galeries-pilotes in Lausanne and Grandes et Jeunes d'Aujourd'hui in Paris in 1963.
In 1963 he also participated in the exhibition "L'Art et l'Ecriture" at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Staatliche Kunsthalle in Baden-Baden.
In 1964 he was present at the important exhibition "Dokumenta III" in Kassel, invited by Professor Arnold Bode. The following year his painter friend originally from Mannheim, Rudi Baerwind, proposes that they mount exhibitions together in Germany.
In 1968 his last exhibition at the Galerie Facchetti in Paris took place. The works exhibited here testify to the acquisition of a new language that represents a return to primary structures and announces his future evolution that will take place in America. In fact, he accepts an invitation to teach painting at the Minneapolis School of Art. Leaving with the goal of staying in the United States for one year, he will instead stay for fifteen, marrying an American art critic.
The artistic experiences here contribute to a radicalization of pictorial elements taken to the extreme: the graphism that had characterized earlier work disappears entirely. Space is ordered first in grids and then in the shape of an L. For seven years he exhibits at the Pace Gallery in New York and takes a keen interest in American Indian art, African art, pre-Columbian art and primitive arts in general.
A sabbatical in France in 1976 provokes a progressive return to Palimpsest. He reintroduces graphisms on the perfectly neutral surface and some random elements in the structure. Collages and scratchings, indecipherable shapes and marks on the pictorial surface, recall the symbols of ancient archaic cultures.
Gestures and the use of matter play an extremely important role in them and, like the early Tapié, bring to mind popular graffiti on the plaster of walls.
In 1984 a retrospective exhibition was dedicated to him at the Centre National des Arts Plastiques in Paris, and he returned permanently to France. In the 1980s he "writes" directly on the support and prefers to use materials that "make resistance" and can be manipulated, such as sand, pulverized stones, natural pigments, wood. arriving at a three-dimensionality. In 1991 he received a commission from the French state to create a large work measuring 3.4x5 meters for the orchestra stage of the Cité de la Musique conservatory. In 1993 he exhibited recent works in Germany, in the Mannheim region at the Kunstwerein in Ludwigshafen. A major retrospective of 40 years of work takes place between 1996 and 1997 at Kunsthalle Mannheim and Kunstverein Wolsfburg.
Museums and places hosting his works:
New York (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum - Metropolitan Museum of Art);
Buffalo (Albright-Knox Art Gallery);
Baltimore; Minneapolis (Walker Art Center);
Pittsburgh (Carnegie Institute);
Saint Louis (City Art Museum) - United States
Jerusalem
Lausanne (Musée des Beaux-Arts) - Switzerland
Ludwigshafen (Kulturhaus der Stadt);
Mannheim (Kunsthalle);
Berlin (Nationalgalerie) - Germany
Paris (Bibliothéque Nationale, Fonds Nationals d'Art Contemporain, FNAC ; Fonds région de l'Ile-de-France) - France
Bibliography:
mETRO 1, Milan, Stab. Poligrafico Colombi, 1960; L. Harambourg, L'Ecole de Paris, 1945-1965, Neuchâtel, Ides & Calendes, 1993; G. Fabre, M. Butor, P.-A. Michaud, Georges Noël, Paris, Editions de la difference, 1997.
© Georges Noel, by SIAE 2023
The years '56-57 represented the period in which the historical development of this artistic trend is taking place; Noël is fully aware of this and seeks his way with dizzying energy. Through the automatism of gestures he wants to restore in painting the sensations, illusion, mystification, energy, and invisible elements of nature that he had memorized. Noël, while feeling symbiotic with the Informal movement born of Existentialism, tries to develop a painting-writing of "movement" drawing directly from his personal experiences. As early as 1957 he began to develop "Palimpsests," using large pieces of fine paper and silk paper that he spreads over the material, integrating them into the canvas. From 1957 he completely eliminates form from his works, discovers polyvinyl acetate to which, in 1959, he will add silicon powder and natural pigments. This combination of materials allows him to make very particular impastos.
In 1958, at the suggestion of the art critic Michel Ragon, he visited Paul Facchetti's Gallery and came out with the agreement to regularly supply works and participate in exhibitions organized by it. Indeed, the first historical exhibitions of Informal Art had already been held here: "Signifiants de l'informel" in 1951-1952 and "Un art autre" in 1952, under the patronage of Michel Tapié. Many of Noël's works would enter Paul Facchetti's personal collection and his museum in Buffalo, USA.
In 1959, on the occasion of the gallery's tenth anniversary, Facchetti organized a group show with works by Noël, Jean Dubuffet, Camille Bryen, Sam Francis, Pollock, Georges Mathieu, Henri Michaux, Wols, Fautrier, and Kemeny Seymour Knox.
Here, in 1960 Noël held his first solo exhibition presented by critic Charles Estienne and accompanied by a catalog. That same year the international Milanese magazine Metro, founded by Bruno Alfieri, devoted no less than 32 pages to him.
The following year Noël has the opportunity to travel to Italy for a solo exhibition at Galleria Lorenzelli in Milan. The exhibition is accompanied by a catalog with texts by Bruno Alfieri. Bruno Lorenzelli buys 150 canvases by the artist from Paul Facchetti, and Giuseppe Marchioli and Gillo Dorfles take an interest in his work. Also in 1961, Galerie Facchetti organized another solo show for him, with a catalog written by René Berger, director of the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Lausanne.
Intense is also participation in the Salons: Salon des Réalités Nouvelles in 1959 and 1965; Biennale in 1959 and 1963; Salon Comparaison in 1960; Salon International des galeries-pilotes in Lausanne and Grandes et Jeunes d'Aujourd'hui in Paris in 1963.
In 1963 he also participated in the exhibition "L'Art et l'Ecriture" at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam and the Staatliche Kunsthalle in Baden-Baden.
In 1964 he was present at the important exhibition "Dokumenta III" in Kassel, invited by Professor Arnold Bode. The following year his painter friend originally from Mannheim, Rudi Baerwind, proposes that they mount exhibitions together in Germany.
In 1968 his last exhibition at the Galerie Facchetti in Paris took place. The works exhibited here testify to the acquisition of a new language that represents a return to primary structures and announces his future evolution that will take place in America. In fact, he accepts an invitation to teach painting at the Minneapolis School of Art. Leaving with the goal of staying in the United States for one year, he will instead stay for fifteen, marrying an American art critic.
The artistic experiences here contribute to a radicalization of pictorial elements taken to the extreme: the graphism that had characterized earlier work disappears entirely. Space is ordered first in grids and then in the shape of an L. For seven years he exhibits at the Pace Gallery in New York and takes a keen interest in American Indian art, African art, pre-Columbian art and primitive arts in general.
A sabbatical in France in 1976 provokes a progressive return to Palimpsest. He reintroduces graphisms on the perfectly neutral surface and some random elements in the structure. Collages and scratchings, indecipherable shapes and marks on the pictorial surface, recall the symbols of ancient archaic cultures.
Gestures and the use of matter play an extremely important role in them and, like the early Tapié, bring to mind popular graffiti on the plaster of walls.
In 1984 a retrospective exhibition was dedicated to him at the Centre National des Arts Plastiques in Paris, and he returned permanently to France. In the 1980s he "writes" directly on the support and prefers to use materials that "make resistance" and can be manipulated, such as sand, pulverized stones, natural pigments, wood. arriving at a three-dimensionality. In 1991 he received a commission from the French state to create a large work measuring 3.4x5 meters for the orchestra stage of the Cité de la Musique conservatory. In 1993 he exhibited recent works in Germany, in the Mannheim region at the Kunstwerein in Ludwigshafen. A major retrospective of 40 years of work takes place between 1996 and 1997 at Kunsthalle Mannheim and Kunstverein Wolsfburg.
Museums and places hosting his works:
New York (Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum - Metropolitan Museum of Art);
Buffalo (Albright-Knox Art Gallery);
Baltimore; Minneapolis (Walker Art Center);
Pittsburgh (Carnegie Institute);
Saint Louis (City Art Museum) - United States
Jerusalem
Lausanne (Musée des Beaux-Arts) - Switzerland
Ludwigshafen (Kulturhaus der Stadt);
Mannheim (Kunsthalle);
Berlin (Nationalgalerie) - Germany
Paris (Bibliothéque Nationale, Fonds Nationals d'Art Contemporain, FNAC ; Fonds région de l'Ile-de-France) - France
Bibliography:
mETRO 1, Milan, Stab. Poligrafico Colombi, 1960; L. Harambourg, L'Ecole de Paris, 1945-1965, Neuchâtel, Ides & Calendes, 1993; G. Fabre, M. Butor, P.-A. Michaud, Georges Noël, Paris, Editions de la difference, 1997.
© Georges Noel, by SIAE 2023
