Georges Bauquier

GEORGES BAUQUIER (Aigues-Mortes, 1910 - Callian, 1997).
"Vegetable composition", ca. 1940.
Oil on canvas.
Without signature.
Measurements: 65 × 90 cm; 91.5 x 117 cm (frame).

Bauquier transforms the genre of the still life in an exercise of plastic construction. The work combines vegetal elements, geometric volumes and planes of intense color, organized on a composition of great formal balance. The French artist reorganizes nature in a modern key, paying attention to the relationship between line, volume and color. The result is a solid and decorative painting, linked to the climate of formal renewal of the School of Paris and the artistic environment in which the author developed much of his career.

Georges Bauquier was a French painter closely linked to Fernand Léger, of whom he was a collaborator, assistant and later one of the main curators of his legacy. His painting develops a modern figuration of emphatic forms, defined contours and solid constructive sense, close to cubism, purism and the atmosphere of the School of Paris.

He exhibited in galleries such as Louis Carré and Bernheim, and in institutions such as the Centre d'Art International in Paris, the Musée National Fernand Léger in Biot, La Malmaison in Cannes and the Château de Vascoeuil. His work is represented at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, which holds pieces such as Portrait de Serge Charchoune and Composition au chandelier, as well as at the Centre International d'Art Contemporain de Carros.