The self-proclaimed founder of lyrical abstraction, Georges Mathieu shot to fame in the 1950s and 1970s before finding himself into purgatory until his death in 2012. Pioneering a form of gestural abstraction that was close to performance, Georges Mathieu, famed-provocateur, with his dazzling brilliance, developed a form of painting where speed and spontaneity is key. Sometimes working in front of the cameras, his work exhibited throughout the world, he was famed for his large-scale formats where the unadulterated paint spurts from the tube. He brought a new brand of freedom to the creative gesture and gave birth to a brand new style, somewhere between esoteric sign, calligraphy and raw energy. The titles, often steeped in historical, musical and geographical references, add a poetic quality, both sophisticated and offbeat.

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