Gérard Schneider

Gérard Schneider

Born in Switzerland, Gérard Schneider (1896-1986) is an essential figure of the new free and gestural abstraction that was born in Paris in the immediate post-war period. He studied at the Ecole nationale des arts décoratifs and the Ecole nationale des beaux-arts in Paris, before moving permanently to France. In the mid-1930s, Gérard Schneider assimilated the revolution initiated by Kandinsky’s abstraction, while exploring the new horizons brought by surrealism. Then, in the immediate post-war effervescence, his painting plays a pioneering role in the birth of a new and radical abstraction: the Lyrical Abstraction.

His gesture is raw and vibrant, physical and liberated. Deeply inspired by music, his brushstrokes reflect his intention to translate pure emotion into painting.

Alongside Georges Mathieu, Hans Hartung and Pierre Soulages – with whom he has a sincere friendship – Gérard Schneider will very quickly see his work acquire an international dimension.

Gérard Schneider exhibits on several continents where he will be invited for the major institutional and biennial retrospectives. Gérard Schneider continued to paint until his death in 1986 at the age of 90.