Claude Viallat

Claude Viallat, born in Nîmes in 1936, is a contemporary French painter. He studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Montpellier from 1955 to 1959, and then at the Beaux-Arts in Paris in 1962-63, in Raymond Legueult's studio. In 1966, Claude Viallat adopted a process based on prints, which can be seen in the context of a radical critique of lyrical and geometric abstraction (in a technique known as All-over). A neutral form, neither organic nor geometric, is repeated on a free canvas, without a chassis, determining the composition of the work. In 1969, he co-founded the group Supports/Surfaces.

In addition to the growing success of his shows both in France (at the Pompidou Center in 1982) and abroad (Venice Biennale in 1988), he devoted himself to his work as an art school teacher: he has taught in Nice, Limoges, Marseille, Nîmes (where he has been director for many years), and in Paris, at the Beaux-Arts.

Now he is retired and he continues his artistic research. He cites multiple influences: Matisse and Picasso, but also Simon Hantai and American artists such as Jackson Pollock, Sam Francis, Jules Olitski, Morris Louis and Kenneth Noland ; they all have built a polymorphic body of work which also integrates the practice of tauromachic drawing.