Claude Viallat

Biographical Data

Born in Nîmes, southern France, in 1936. He lives and works in Nîmes. Claude Viallat studies at the Fine Arts School in Montpellier (1955-1959) and in Paris (1962-1963). His first individual exhibition takes place in 1966. He is one of the founding members of the Support/Surface movement.

Brief Chronology

In 1966, from “a refusal of demands” Claude Viallat evolves to “a systematic reiteration of the same shape” on the “materiality of the surface”. He creates a sort of supple rectangle, with rounded corners, which he nets and enmeshes and paints reiteratively on all types of surfaces. This symbol is his signature on canvases he never signs. During the 70’s he does his own experiments. “He ties, he joins everything: content, colors, hues and values”. He “superposes, explodes, piles, wicks, exposes to the sun” his painting and tests the reaction of color on each surface. He stencils his imprint on canvases without framework, sheets, tarpaulin, parasols, dresses, blinds, “on what he finds by chance”: he wants his paintings to have something special, to live “through time”. In the early 80’s he begins painting his motif with a brush, he outlines it in black or white and saturates his huge canvases with color. He also illustrates his passion for bulls and bullfights in drawings.

P.L.T.

Viallat

Sans titre n° 301, 2007, Acrylic on curtain, 212 x 65 cm / 83,4 x 25,5 in.