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VALMIER Georges (1885-1937)
Born in 1885, died in &937
Georges Valmier was from the start an enthusiastic draughtsman. In 1905 he
enrolled at the Académie Humbert. Two years later he passed the entrance
examination for the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris, where he studied painting
in Luc-Olivier Merson's master class until 1909. Valmier's early
Cubist-inspired work shows the influence of both Georges Braque and Paul
Cézanne, whose work he had become familiar with in 1907 at the 'Salon
d'Automne'. During the years that followed Valmier did mostly portraits. He
articulated the motifs of his still lifes and landscapes like prisms while
increasingly enhancing volume. In 1913 the artist had his first opportunity
to display his work at the 'Salon des Indépendants', regularly taking part
in these exhibitions until the outbreak of the first world war. Conscripted
at once, Valmier sketched his impressions of the war in 'Carnets de guerre'.
On his return to Paris in 1918, Valmier met the collector and art dealer,
Léonce Rosenberg, who was so enthusiastic about his work that he gave him a
contract. The artist now began to make preliminary studies for his paintings
in the form of gouaches and collages. He approached his final motif via
numerous composition studies, some of them only slight variations in colour
or shade. His geometric phase culminated in a period of work that was almost
abstract. At the same time Valmier was seeking new materials, experimenting
with egg tempera and casein colour. By 1922, however, he was back to Cubism,
producing sophisticated, balanced compositions in vibrant colours. From then
on the artist participated in a great many international exhibitions. From
1928 his work again underwent a considerable change in character. Curved
forms now replaced straight lines in his compositions, lending them an
almost vegetal quality. The early 1930s saw Valmier again turn to
abstraction. He joined 'Abstraction-Création', whose founding members
included Auguste Herbin, Georges Vantongerloo, Hans Arp, Albert Gleizes,
Jean Hélion and Frantisek Kupka. At this time Valmier was also designing
stage sets and costumes for plays by Paul Claudel, Georges Pillement and Max
Jacob. In 1932 he showed work at the group retrospect 'Vingt-cinq ans de
peinture abstraite' mounted by Galérie Braun. The Galérie des Beaux-Arts in
Paris showed work by Valmier in 1935 at their large-scale exhibition devoted
to 'Les créateurs du cubisme'. Two years later the artist completed his last
important commission: for the French national railways pavilion at the 1937
Paris Exhibition.
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