Michel Macréau French, 1935-1995

Michel Macréau was a French artist born in 1935 in Paris and who died in 1995 in Laignes. Often regarded as an artist whose work is complex, he is frequently associated with art brut and is considered a pioneer of free figuration. His work resonates with certain explorations by young artists such as Jean-Michel Basquiat.

It was during an unstable childhood that he discovered, in an art bookstore, works by Matisse and Picasso; he then began to paint. The influence of these artists would continue to be felt throughout his entire body of work: colors and fragmented bodies are part of a visual vocabulary that he successfully reappropriated.

By the late 1950s, Macréau began to develop his own pictorial language, gradually moving away from traditional techniques. In doing so, he explored, in particular, the themes of the figure and the sign. By superimposing bodies and faces in seemingly disjointed compositions and reducing figures to a few strokes that convey their expression, he did not hesitate to paint on a variety of ordinary surfaces: sheets, bags, or wooden planks. In a highly graphic style, he distorted, fragmented, multiplied, and superimposed human figures. A few strokes were enough to bring forth a multitude of emotions.

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