A colourful tribute to Gérard Fromanger

Following his death last June, Gérard Fromanger, a major artist on the contemporary scene, is honoured through an exhibition at Artcurial, in collaboration with Caroline Smulders gallery.

Gérard Fromanger by Willy Rizzo

Gérard Fromanger (1939-2021)

Gérard Fromanger was born in 1939 in Pontchartrain (78).While he was still a student, Fromanger was spotted by César who lent him his studio and followed his work. Gérard Fromanger was very young when he became one of the major figures of the Parisian artistic scene in the 1960s, by taking part in the adventure of the Figuration Narrative. His work was presented in numerous exhibitions in France and abroad: Centre Pompidou in Paris, Musée national d'Histoire et d'Art du Grand-Duché de Luxembourg, National Museum of Contemporary Art in Seoul, and many others. Some one hundred works entered public collections, museums and foundations.

In May 1968, he cofounded the Atelier des Beaux-Arts to produce thousands of posters, which then allowed him to shoot the "film-tracts" with Jean-Luc Godard. Gérard Fromanger used the photographic camera to create images without any deliberate viewpoint or any preferred framing, "images taken like a film from the anonymous movement of what happens" (Michel Foucault).

For over five years, Gérard Fromanger has painted canvases entitled Le Coeur fait ce qu'il veut (The Heart Does What It Wants). He wished to be present in Paris this autumn, but his work came to an abrupt halt because of his disappearance on 18^th June.

Gérard Fromanger
Yves, 2018
Pastel on paper
80x60 cm
© Grégory Copitet

Fromanger, Colour Rises to the Sky
Since 2002, Artcurial has highlighted the members of the Figuration Narrative movement, and went so far as to organize conferences and meetings around the group. Continuing in this vein, the Post-War & Contemporary Art department at Artcurial will present from October 15^th to 24^th the exhibition Fromanger, Colour Rises to the Sky, tribute. Some fifteen works retracing the artist's last years of research will be presented: oils and acrylics on canvas, works on paper and limited editions. As for example a copy of the series Peinture-Monde faces the artist's last three paintings, entitled Peinture-Univers. In both series, the artist's vocabulary is expressed in "these large circles of colour, like so many questions, hopes, interrogations, bubbles to be filled for a new world".*

This exhibition is organised in collaboration with the Caroline Smulders Gallery. Curator for this event, Caroline Smulders continues to represent the artist as she has done for years and still says to him: "the heart does what it wants, yours will always beat in your works, Gérard".

His last works are the promise of an artist who is not done dealing with painting. Works on paper, portraits of the artist's dear friends, made of interlacing lines in vigorous colours are part of the selection.

* Olivier Zahm, Gérard Fromanger : la « Peinture-Monde », exhibition catalogue Gérard Fromanger, Centre Pompidou, February 16 - May 16, 2016.

Information
Public exhibition
From Friday October 15 to Sunday October 24, from 10 AM to 7 PM.

Broadcasting in the exhibition of a selection of interviews with the artist
Sunday 24 October from 4pm to 6pm

Contact
Caroline Smulders
+33 6 09 02 66 31