Gerard Schneider - Biography
Gérard Ernest Schneider was born in 1986 in Sainte-Croix, Switzerland. Schneider settled permanently in France in 1922.
His art evolves and traverses several phases until '44: classical, figurative and then imaginary, surrealist (1937), conception of monumental forms, lyrical and abstract. In 1939 the meeting with Pablo Picasso takes place. Between '41 and '43 he participates in Gurjieff's teaching. In '46 he was among the artists exhibited at the Denise René Gallery in Paris for the first postwar exhibition of abstract art. He is naturalized French in 1948.
It is from the 1950s onward that his plastic language finally finds its way, first and foremost spontaneity, the artist in fact lets his instincts run free and never erases the traces of his impetuosity, and this will be his characteristic mark. After alternate beginnings, he finally manages to establish himself and together with Hartung and Soulages occupies a prominent place among the abstract artists of the second generation. In opposition to geometric abstraction, his "cipher" places him in what is usually called lyrical abstraction, of which he is one of the initiators.Gérard Schneider died in Paris in 1986.
