Gérard Schneider

Born in Sainte-Croix (Vaud), Switzerland. He grew up at Neuchâtel, where he studied decorative art with the painter Alfred Blailé. Moving to Paris, he attended the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs from 1916 to 1919, and the Ecole des Beaux-Arts for a short period in 1918.

He returned to Neuchâtel in 1920 and held his first exhibition there, then moved back to Paris in 1922, where he worked hard at painting and earned his living as a picture restorer.

Exhibited at the Salon d’Automne in 1926, and from 1935 to 1939 at the Salon des Surindépendants.

Having assimilated the joint influence of Cubism and Surrealism, he gradually departed from figurative painting and in 1944 exhibited a picture entitled First Abstract Composition.

He is one of the most important artists of the french Movement « Lyrical abstraction » with Hans Hartung, Georges Mathieu and Pierre Soulages. At the begining of his abstract carreer, he met Hartung and the young Soulages : there were considered in Paris, at this time, to be THE trio of Abstraction, and the made a lot of exhibitions together in the parisian galleries specialized in abstract art. While Soulages is interested by darkness and light, Hartung by gesture and balance composition, Gérard Schneider is the most ‘brut’ artist of the Lyrical abstraction, working with great spontaneity and emotions.

The Galerie Denise René organized a traveling exhibition of his work in Scandinavia ( 1946), while one-man shows were held in Paris (Galerie Lydia Conti, 1947, 1948, 1950; Galerie de Beaune, 1951; Galerie Galanis, 1954; Galerie du Musée de Poche, Gouaches, 1959); Brussels ( 1952; Palais des Beaux-Arts, 1953); Cologne ( 1952; Galerie Der Spiegel, 1953; 1957); Munich ( 1953); New York (Kootz Gallery, 1956, 1957, 1958); Milan (Galleria Apollinaire, 1958).

His work has been included in many international exhibitions both in Paris and abroad: Salon de Mai, Paris (from 1949 to 1960); Venice Biennale ( 1948, 1954); Berlin and Innsbruck ( 1950); Advancing French Art, New York, San Francisco, Chicago ( 1950, organized by Louis Carré); School of Paris1900-1950, Royal Academy, London ( 1951); Pittori d’Oggi, Francia-Italia, Turin ( 1951, 1953); São Paulo Bienal ( 1951, 1953); Leverkusen ( 1954); Caracas Bienal ( 1955); Documenta I and II, Kassel ( 1955, 1959); Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, Paris ( 1956, 1958); Pittsburgh International ( 1958); Cinquante Ans d’Art Moderne, Brussels World’s Fair ( 1958); School of Paris 1959: The Internationals, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis ( 1959).

Awarded the Lissone Prize, Italy, 1957. Book illustrations (12 lithographs) for Langage by Ganzo, published by the Galerie Lydia Conti, Paris 1948.