SCHNEIDER GÉRARD
Artworks for sale

Gérard Ernest Schneider was born in 1896 in Sainte-Croix, Switzerland. After studying in Neuchâtel, he reached Paris at the beginning of the First World War and took courses at the School of Decorative Arts and then at the School of Fine Arts.

HIS FIRST SOLO EXHIBITION

In Neuchâtel, his first solo exhibition took place at the Léopold Robert Gallery in 1920. Schneider settled definitively in France in 1922.

His training enabled him to be a restorer of old paintings and from 1926 onwards he took part in numerous group exhibitions (Salon d’Automne, des Surindépendants, de Mai, des Réalités Nouvelles, etc.).

THE EVOLUTION OF HIS ART

His art evolved and went through various phases until 1944: classical, figurative and then imaginary, surrealist (1937), conception of monumental forms, lyrical and abstract.

In 1939, the meeting with Pablo Picasso took place. Between ’41 and ’43 he participated in Gurjieff’s teaching. In ’46 he was among the artists exhibited at the Denise René Gallery in Paris for the first post-war exhibition of abstract art.

He was naturalised French in 1948.

THE BEGINNING OF LYRICAL ABSTRACTION

It is from the 1950s onwards that his plastic language finally finds its way, first and foremost spontaneity, the artist in fact lets his instincts run free and never erases the traces of his impetuosity and this will be his hallmark.

After alternating beginnings, he finally succeeded in establishing himself and, together with Hartung and Soulages, occupied a prominent place among the abstract artists of the second generation.

In opposition to geometric abstraction, his ‘cipher’ places him in what is known as lyrical abstraction, of which he is one of the initiators.

THE 1970S

It was towards the end of the 1970s that Schneider concentrated his work almost exclusively on works on paper, large-scale works in which the colours and energy released by his gesture and painting show almost fiery paintings, destined to last forever.

In July 1986 Schneider died at the age of 90, leaving a legacy of works and ideas that are destined to mark the art of our time.