Based in Nîmes in the south of France, Claude Viallat developed an artistic protocol over 60 years ago he has stayed faithful to ever since. Rejecting the notions of “picture”, “figuration” and “narration”, he has been repeating the same geometric form, suggesting a cell or small bone, on found fabrics with no stretchers and no frames. A pioneering figure in the Supports/Surfaces movement and its quest to overthrow the codes of painting, Claude Viallat has today established himself as one of the most radical painters of his generation.

The Templon exhibition offers a retrospective look at his practice. From the raw tarpaulins of the late 1960s to largescale compositions on printed fabric and the glued and patched canvases he has produced in recent years, the works illustrate the unprecedented creativity of an artist who has never renounced the agenda he set himself at the start of his career. A great admirer of Matisse, his art borrows from sources as varied as rock art, Native American culture and bullfighting. His work reveals a particular interest in the US art scene, as demonstrated by the discreet drips that crop up here and there on his military tarpaulins, scarves and luxury fabric offcuts, a nod to legendary abstract expressionist Jackson Pollock. His exploration of volume and space results in the resolute questioning of the status of the work of art and very purpose of its exhibition.