Biography

No Art Lover Remains Indifferent To This The Chronology Of The Production Of An Artist Whose Work He Appreciated. One Of Its Components. And It Is Undoubtedly In An Attempt To Satisfy This Laudable Curiosity. What Was It Like? Constituted This Retrospective Of The Painted Work Of PIERRE MALRIEUX Covering Some Fifty Years Of Creative Creativity. Abundant. What Could Be More Attractive Than Following The Path Of The Artist's Work Towards Its Conclusion Both Through The Personality Of The Artist And The Artist? Of The Author As Well As The Evolution Of The Fruit Of His Research And His Favorite Themes During This Half-century Of His Activity. Pictorial?

A Man From The South...

Resolutely A Man From The South, Pierre Malrieux Was Born In Paris. In Lot-et-Garonne Before Spending His Childhood And Completing His Secondary Studies In Paris. Bordeaux Where, From The Age Of 12, He Began Drawing And Painting. Painting With A Local Artist. It's At Paris Where He "goes Up" à 20 Years During These Sad Years Of The Occupation, Which He Will Then Stay. He Will Be Trained There. Sculpture In The Workshop Of SOKONESKI, A Russian Immigrant Artist, While Assiduously Frequenting The Rooms Of The Louvre To Immerse Himself In The Technique Of The 17th Century Masters. Key, Especially The Flemish. Its First Pictorial Manifestation Thus Took Place In The Capital, In Paris. The Ror Volmar Gallery In 1951. It Was There; The Starting Point Is Not Yet His Celebrity. But At Least The Affirmation Of His Art, Not To Say Its Consecration, With Regard To Notoriety Of The Place. But This Passionate Of Nature Was, After About Fifteen Years, Nostalgic For The South-West Where He Had His Roots. It Was Therefore In 1956 That He Left Paris To Establish His Home And His Easel In Cap-Ferret, Not Far From There. Where His Parents Took Him On Vacation When He Was A Child. And The Magic Of This Place Must Be Such That It Has Been Preserved There. This Freshness Of Youth, This Propensity To Dream, This Sensuality Of Life. Housed In This Large, Stainless, Athletic Body, Ready Both For Any Challenge. The Most Vigorous Energy. Physically, Malrieux Sometimes Has A Dalinian Posture, Apart, Of Course, From The Megalomania And Rusticity Of Malrieux. Of The Mustache Which Somewhat Weights The Connection. Let Us Add, To Be Complete, His Sense Of Humor Which Has Nothing To Do With It. Envy His Taste For Stuffing, Even Gaudriole. A Bon Vivant, In Short, But Mixed With Epicurean In The True Sense Of The Word.

From The Melancholy Of Shadowy Tones To The Jubilation Of Dazzling Colors...

Although The Evolution Of Malrieux's Style Has Been Progressive From 1951 To In The Current Period, We Can Easily Discover Several Stages Of His Work With Innovative Characteristics Compared To The Previous Ones Without These Being Radically And Definitively Abandoned. This Relative Constancy Is Due To; Obviously, To The Fundamental Elements Of His Particularly Original Style Such As The Skilful Preparation Of The Backgrounds, The Systematic Structuring Into Horizontal And Vertical Lines Of His Compositions, His Geometric Flat Areas. Nerous Or His Effects Of Translucent Superpositions Of The Paste, Particularly In The Tormented Skies Of His Landscapes. These Periods Are Punctuated By Key Events, Generally Returns From Travel Or Preparations For Exhibitions (around A Hundred In France Including 8 In Paris And 5 Abroad Between Spain, Germany, Belgium, The USA And Mexico) Which Generated This Or That New Direction In The Choice Of Themes And, Consequently, Colors, Or Such And Such An Incursion Into A New Field Of Research.

The 1950s Will Have Been The Té Marked By Dark Colors, Grays, Dark Greens On Backgrounds Already Worked With. According To The Artist's Signature And On Which Romantic Or, Sometimes, Romantic Characters Often Stand Out. Mystical Connotation. The Material Is Rich, The Paste Is Dense. It Was Not Until The 1960s That We Gradually Felt The Influence Of The Ferret-Capien Environment Found In The Area. And, Singularly, The Appearance Of This Complex Blue Of Which The Painter Has The Secret And Which The Sky And The Dream Body Of Water Of The Arcachon Basin So Present Inspire Him In Its Landscapes. Thus, Like One Of His Illustrious Predecessors To Whom He Has Boundless Admiration, He Too Will Have Had His Blue Era. A Period Of Renewal Then Begins For Malrieux Where Combines The Happiness Of A Recent Union With His Young Wife And A New Fatherhood. With The Contribution Of A Few Escapades In Corsica And Spain. The Color Of His Canvases Is Always As Rich, A Soft Light Illuminates His Blues And The Compositions Inspired From Beyond The Pyrenees Favor Yellow, 39;ochre, Pink And Red. 1974 Gave Rise To An Exhibition In A Bordeaux Gallery Of The Work Of Malrieux Intended For Sacred Art And At The Occasion Of Which The Painter Revealed, On Around Twenty Large-format Canvases, The Pictorial And Moving Aspect Of His Almost Mystical Inspiration, While A Cruel Mourning Darkened His Mood Of The Moment. Full Maturity Of His Art Was Thus Affirmed, Just As, A Year Later, During The Presentation He Made Of His "nudes" To Celebrate The Year Of The Woman, An Intimate And Sensual Expression Of Her Talent Highlighting Both The Quality Of Her Work And Her Talent. Drawing. For A Few Years, He Then Set Up His Easel At His Desk. Sète Whereù He Transposes Onto Canvas The New Impressions Given To Him By His Escapes To The Mediterranean Coast Or To Provence And The Camargue, Which Reinforces His Use Of Warm Colors, Browns, Reds, Yellows And Red. But Finding Its Home Port On Its Atlantic Peninsula, It Is Far From Denying The Blues Of Its Marines To The Point That At The Invitation Of The Alliance Française, He Exhibited In 1984 At Mexico City On The Theme Of "Los Azules De Malrieux". There Is No Doubt That This Opportunity The Experience That A Two-month Stay In Mexico Gave Him, During Which He Immersed Himself, With Numerous Notes And Sketches, In This New Atmosphere Of Central America, Will Have Had Significant Consequences. Quite Spectacular Statements On The Evolution Of His Work. From 1985 A New Light, Both Literally And Figuratively, Will Then Reinforce And Highlight The Underlying Power That We Felt Until Then. Through The Blurred And Poetic Impetations Of His Paintings. Characters Abound, As In Tavelas And Native American Markets, Shapes Rather Suggested In Torrid Colors, The Line Of The Drawing Hardens While Retaining Its Finesse. And It Is In This Spirit That Malrieux's Work Will Continue And Assert Itself Over The Next Ten Years, Which Will Also Give Priority To With Increasingly Suggestive Compositions, -and Therefore Less And Less Figurative-, With The Most Dazzling Colors. Among These Appear The Greens That A Trip To Thailand Brought To Light In The 90s. The Architecture Of The Compositions, The Balance Of The Shapes, The Relationship Of The Tones Are 39;refine Into A Learned Harmony Which Illustrates, From 1991 To 1999, Three Very Notable Exhibitions At L'Espace 2000 In Arcachon And One At Marseille, Two To One Paris, One To One Brussels.

It Was Towards The Middle Of This Period That, In A Burst Of Exasperation Of The Will, Appeared Suggestive Of The Painter, Some Canvases With Such A Pure Design; That They Move Quietly And Without Provocation Towards A Radically Non-figurative Style. Then Our Artist, Insatiable Hunter Of Images And Atmospheres As Well As New Impressions, Did Not Let The Century End Without Going, To At The End Of 2000, At The End Of 2000, The Discovery For Two Months Of New York, The Coasts Of Florida, Louisiana, Then, Even, The Entire West Coast Of The United States. He Naturally Returned Loaded With It. Of Sketches And Notes On This New Experience Which Further Broadens The Horizon Of His Already Existing Inspiration. So Vast And Generate New Paintings Which Benefited His Last Exhibition At Paris. Paris In 2001 In A Gallery Of The Palais Royal. And It Is Certainly The Beginning Of The 21st Century. Century That Malrieux Chose To Confirm For Us, Without Complexes And Without Denying His "suggested Figurative" Style. Whose Evolution We See Over These Fifty Years, His Appetite For Resolutely Non-figurative Expression Which Undoubtedly Marks The Apogee Of His Creativity ;. The Transparency Of The Backgrounds And The Freshness Of The Colors Gain Even More While All The Charm Of The Composition Is Added To The Picture. The Balance Of Shapes, The Ratio Of Tones, The Fineness Of The Line. Sometimes, However, An Enigmatic Female Character Comes To Bring Her Grace To The Foreground To "challenge" Against An Unreal Backdrop, Somewhat Reminiscent Of A The Metaphysical Painting Of De Chirico. The Chronology Of This Painter's Journey Towards Fame Can Therefore Be Quickly Outlined. That He Acquired During This Half-century (already! But Time Flies So Quickly!) Of Exhibitions, Public And Private Acquisitions Of His Works Like This Is Attested By Both The Presence Of These In Many Particular Collections In France And Abroad As Well As That Of His Name In The Famous Annual Collection "Akoun" ; From The Coast Of Painters Malrieux Paints As He Breathes And This Modest Retrospective Panorama, Certainly Not Exhaustive, Or Even Selective Of His Painted Production, Leads Us To Attempt To Identify Its Main Characteristics.

If, As The Geographical Context Of The Author's Home Port Naturally Explains, The Marines Constitute An Important Part In The Category Of Landscapes, We Are Struck By The Fact That By The Variety Sites Which, From Provence To Spain Via Mexico, Thailand Or The United States Serve As Support For This Project. The Inspiration Of The Painter. As For The Themes Chosen For His Compositions, They Evolve Into An Infinite Mosaic Where The Woman Is Commonly Queen, Or Alone In Her Beauty; Plastic, Either In The Form Of Figured Shadows Animating A Street Or A Landscape In The Distance, Or In The Form Of A Somewhat Chagallian Dream. But Sacred Art Is As Present There As Is Bullfighting In The Dazzling Colorful Whirlwind Of The City. Of The Fierce Struggle Of Man And The Beast, As The Clowns And Their Symbolic Charge Of Sadness, Or As The Allegory, Finally. The Only Exclusion, However, From The "Malrieusian" World, Apart From One Or Two Bouquets Of Flowers In Seductive Colors: The Still Life; This Epithet Being Undoubtedly And Rightly So, Considered Antinomic And Too Incompatible With The Universal Conception Of The Painter.

A Painter Of Exploration...

Because His Creativity Is Intense And Daily, Not Only, As We See In The Pictorial And Graphic Domain Which Requires, It Is True, Most Of Its Time, But Also In That Of Sculpture In Various Forms And On Various Supports, Earth Metal, Or Ceramic. He Constantly Undertakes New Research Through His Fertile Imagination And Never Lets Himself Be Discouraged When They Fail To Reach Their Conclusion.

A Rigorous Painter...

The Coherence Of His Work, Despite Its Diversity, Proceeds To Evidence Of Care The Architecture Of His Compositions Whose Intersecting Framework Is Underlying, Well Established On Meticulously Prepared Backgrounds. The Arrangement Of The Colored Areas Is Diatonic And The Balance Of The Chromatic Values Strictly Studied. So Many Fundamental Elements Which Constitute The "style" From Which Malrieux Does Not Depart And Which Indeed Testify To Great Rigor.

A Poet And A Painter Of The Soul.. .

What Can We Also Say About This Magic Of Color? Which He Achieved After The So Dark Tones Of The Beginning Of His Career? Dark Indeed But Dense As In The Depths Of A Volcano Just Waiting To Happen. Later Erupt A Festival Of Burning Colors. These Came First On A Rich And Consistent Material Which, As We Have Seen, Gradually Lightened With The Finesse Of The Line And The Luminosity Of The Work. Increased Transparency Of The Canvas. From Cold To Warm, From Blue To Red, Including Ochres And Browns, His Palette Reflects His Mood, The Moment Of His Happiness In Life Or His Sorrow, And, Naturally Above All, The Subject That His Inspiration Dictates To Him. Break Down. In His Workshop Where He Paints Exclusively And Daily, He Willingly Accompanies The Gestural Rhythm Of His Brushes And His Delicate Brushes With A Warm Music Which Shines Through Joining The Breath And The Halo Of Poetry Which Bathes Each Of His Canvases.

An Exceptional Painter...

Rest At; Situate His Work In Our Time. Unquestionably, It Is Part Of What, Since The Impressionist Revolution At The End Of The 19th Century, It Is Common To Call "modern" Painting. As Opposed To “academic” Painting. And While We're At It, Let's Say "contemporary" Since We Live In The Same Hours As Its Author Who Also Designated Himself As "contemporary Figurative", And Although The Terminology Of Art Critics And The Center Pompidou Generally Reserves This Qualifier Of "contemporary" à Resolutely Avant-garde Creations (too Much?) Subsequent To 1960. So Goes For "figurative" But Not In The Sense Of Pure And Simple Copying, Of Reproduction Of The Subject. Because The Painter Worthy Of The Name Is A Demiurge Who Is Not Content With Photographing The World. Nor Does He Create Another One. Side; He Does Another In This One: He Does It Again. The Subject Is Therefore Not Reproduced But Produced. This Is Indeed The Characteristic Of The Pictorial Domain Of Which Malrieux Has Incontestably Mastered And Which Also Fully Responds To The Needs Of The Painter. This Quote From Paul Klee, One Of The Great Masters Of Modern Art Who Was A Professor At The Bauhaus: “art Does Not Reproduce The Visible; It Makes It Visible. And The Current Development Of The Non-figurative (not To Say Abstract) Tendency Of The Painter, Which Began Several Years Ago, Confirms This To What Extent The Analysis Of The Subject Allows Him To Strip It Of The Superfluous To Remove Only The Essential, The "substantific Marrow", As Rabelais Said, The Essence Non Visi - Wheat And The Subtle Ether Which Permeates It, Then To Restore Them. It Is Significant To Note That Malrieux, Over The Period Of The Last Ten Years, Has Entitled Three Of Its “facets” Exhibitions. He Undoubtedly Insisted On This. Thus Express The Diversity Of The Themes Covered And The Variety Of Topics Covered. Their Invoice; But Is It Not Also, More Or Less Unconsciously, To Signify The Synthesis Of The Sublime, The Reconstruction Facet By Facet That He Operates At The End Of This Sort Of Alchemy Of His Emotional Perception Of The Subject? So, Would We Call Him Post-impressionist? But To Hell With Labels And Affiliations. Although Very Attentive To The World Of Arts That Surrounds Him, Although Passionate About Of Gauguin, Picasso, De Staël And The Technique Of El Greco, He Always Knew How To Protect Himself From Artistic Influences, However Admirable And Masterful They May Be. "Painter Of Passion", "Painter Of Atmosphere" As One Talented Journalist Described Him, Malrieux Remains Above All Himself, Unclassifiable, With Luxuriant Diversity. (the "facets") Through The Many Branches Of His Tree Of Creativity, But Always Recognizable By His Original And So Poetic Style. In His "Imaginary Museum" Of Which This Pamphlet Could, In All Humility, Be The Modest Response For Malrieux, André; Malraux Writes: "The Great Artists Are Not The Transcribers Of The World, They Are Its Rivals." We Do Not Look At A Painting By Malrieux: We Go Through It, We Enter It And, Like Him- We Even Live It.