Edgard Pillet, French Post War Geometric Abstract Oil Painting Kinetic Op Art Edgard Pillet, 1991

Edgard Pillet (French, 1912-1996).
Modern Abstract oil painting on canvas.
Titled “Olifant”. A vibrant work featuring colors of purple, pinks and blues. Hand signed and dated 1991 lower right.
Hand inscribed artist name, title and dated ’91 on verso.
Notes: Martine Arnault 206-207 Illustrated on page 86 of the catalog.
Provenance: Ader Nordmann (Paris), Collection of Louis Geys
Dimensions: Framed; 42 X 31.5 X 1.5 in. Work Size: 39.5 x 28.5 in.

Edgard Pillet studied at the Bordeaux School of Fine Arts and started a career as a painter. He began making abstract work during the late 1940s and edited Art of Today, a Paris-based magazine that supported abstract art. First, as a neo Cubist, the evolution of Pillet towards abstraction begins around 1948. He spent two years in the United States, where he taught painting at the University of Louisville, Kentucky. After returning to Paris, he developed work that combined astrological figures with geometric compositions. He made many relief sculptures that were designed to integrate with architectural structures, including the walls of the amphitheater for the Faculty of Science, in Grenoble, France.
Pillet settles for a long period in the United States where he becomes a professor at the University of Louisville (Kentucky), then at the Art Institute of Chicago. Painter, sculptor, architect, printmaker, muralist, working in the art of Aubusson tapestry designer, he participates in numerous group exhibitions and many solo exhibitions are dedicated to him in France and abroad. He receives several major awards.
Edgard Pillet was one of the most progressive artists of post-war Paris, internationally acclaimed for pioneering a new style of geometric abstraction. He is also respected for his literary contributions to the polemic for abstract art, not least as the Secretary General of the leading avant-garde journal Art Aujourd’hui, which was central to the cause. In 1950 he further championed the aesthetic revolution by founding with Jean Dewasne the extremely influential Atelier d’Art Abstrait on the premises of the Academie de la Grande Chaumière. In 1951 Pillet again demonstrated how far ahead of his time he was when he produced an abstract film Genesis, a thirteen minute film in which the “actors are straight lines, squares, rectangles and circles”; and in 1954 he published a set of short stories called “ideograms” which took the form of an album of screen-printed geometrical compositions, each “story” has a beginning and an end, acted out by forms and colours. He produced tapestry designs for famed Pinton tapisserie atelier in Aubusson France. He showed at the prestigious Denise Rene gallery in Paris, France that championed the Kinetic and Op Art artists Yaacov Agam, Victor Vasarely, (Hans Arp) Jean Arp, Le Corbusier, Jesus Rafael Soto and Jose Cruz Diez. In 1951, he founded the “Espace” group with André Bloc and Félix del Marle.Pillet held many successful solo exhibitions in Europe, including Denise René, Arnaud, Paris; Drian, London; Artek in Helsinki; del Março, Lisbon; Apollo, Brussels; Hybler, Copenhagen; K.B., Oslo; del Fiore, Milan; LAFA, New York; as well as taking part in the Salons de Mai, and Salons des Réalités Nouvelles, and several important international group shows including at National Museum of Modern Art, Rome; Cincinatti Art Museum; and the Museum of Modern Art, São Paolo; aswell as Washinigton, Tokyo, Saigon, Bangkok, Djakarta, Algiers. From 1955-57 he lived in America and spent much time discussing his theories with american abstract artists and significantly Jackson Pollock. He took up a position at the Art Institute of Chicago, and held several exhibitions, before returning to France in 1957. Pillet continued to exhibit internationally throughout his career.

Prizes: Prix Abd-El-Tiff, 1939; Prix de la Jeune Sculpture, Paris, 1948; Prix de la Critique, Brussels, 1953.
The artist is represented in the following Museums of Modern Art: Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris; Musée Nationale d’Art Moderne, Paris; Musée de Peinture et de Sculpture, Grenoble; Musée Ateneum, Helsinki; Finland Museum, Imatra; National Museum, Algiers; National Museum, Djakarta; Museum of Modern Art, Eilat; Museum of Modern Art, New York.