Georges Mathieu Biography

George Mathieu was born 27. January 1921, in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France.

For him the pure act of painting was more important than many other things. 'it is interesting and very exciting'. And to share his excitement he often performed in front of a big audience even in television studios from where his style of painting was broadcasted - action painting in it's pure form. Mathieu demonstrated that painting itself had become the subject of painting. The flows of paint and his brushstrokes had become its 'content'. Also concurrently Action Painting developed in the United States.

As an artist Georges Mathieu received international acclaim; his works were shown from the early 1950s at special exhibitions in both Paris and New York. Mathieu participated in numerous group shows worldwide. In 1959 works of Mathieu's were shown at documenta II in Kassel. In the early 1960s George Mathieu sculpted but also produced designs for furniture, tapestries and murals.

Mathieu said his style of art is to be understood as 'lyrical abstraction'. Parts in his paintings seems to be similar to Far-East calligraphic pictographs. His use of brushes was dynamic and purely dramatic, even theatrical in nature.

In 1968, the French painter and designer Georges Matthieu, the master of the informalism movement, did 16 different posters for Air France. His style can also be referred to as lyrical abstraction.