Georges Mathieu (Boulogne-sur-Mer, França 1921 - Boulogne-Billancourt, França 2012)
Georges Mathieu was a French painter, draftsman and designer. He was born on January 27, 1921, in Boulogne-sur-Mer, France. He studied humanities, law, and philosophy at the University of Lille, graduating in English. He began his artistic production in 1942, creating his first oil works under the influence of Lyrical Abstraction, a movement of which he would become a leading exponent. He moved to Paris in 1947 and held his first solo exhibition in 1950. Two years later, he exhibited in New York.
From 1950 onward, he gained international recognition as an opponent of geometric abstraction and a champion of Lyrical Abstraction. His paintings became marked by quick, improvised calligraphic gestures. In 1959, he published the essay "From Aristotle to Lyrical Abstraction" in L'Oeil magazine, regarded as the manifesto of Tachisme. In the late 1950s, he moved to the United States, where he began giving public painting performances, producing large-scale works in a short time.
Starting in 1962, he diversified his work into jewelry, furniture, tapestries, sculptures, and architectural projects. In 1974, he designed a ten-franc coin and produced graphic works for Air France. He was elected a member of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1975. His works are held in museums around the world. He died on June 10, 2012, at the age of 91.
