Huguette Arthur Bertrand

(1922-2005)

For more information on available artworks by this artist, please call us at +32 2 347 18 49 or send us an email at ap [@] alienorprouvost.com

Works

Untitled – c. 1959
Ink on paper
105 x 76 cm / 41.3 x 29.9 in.
Signed on the reverse
Certificate by M. Philippe Bertrand

Cela qui gronde – 1967
Oil on canvas
130 x 162 cm / 51. x 63.77 in.
Signed ‘Hug Arthur Bertrand’ lower right; titled and dated on the reverse
Certificate by M. Philippe Bertrand

Déferlant rouge et gris sur brun – c. 1970
Oil on canvas
130 x 162 cm / 51.2 x 63.8 in.
Signed ‘Hug Arthur Bertrand’ lower left; signed and titled on the reverse
Certificate by M. Philippe Bertrand

Remous – 1984-1986
Oil on canvas
130 x 162 cm / 51.2 x 63.8 in.
Signed ‘Hug Arthur Bertrand’ lower left; signed, titled and dated on the reverse
Certificate by M. Philippe Bertrand

L’amant cachalot – c. 1990
Oil on canvas
96 x 141 cm / 37.79 x 55.51 in.
Signed ‘Arthur Bertrand’ lower left; signed and titled on the reverse
Certificate by M. Philippe Bertrand

Voie directe – 1992
Oil on canvas
162 x 130 cm / 63.77 x 51.18 in.
Signed ‘Hug Arthur Bertrand’ lower right; signed, titled and dated on the reverse
Certificate by M. Philippe Bertrand

Gévaudan – c. 1966
Oil on canvas
200 x 200 cm / 78.7 x 78.7 in.
Signed ‘Hug Arthur Bertrand’ lower right, signed and titled on the reverse
Certificate by M. Philippe Bertrand

Biography

“Neither geometrism, nor abstract landscaping. Beautiful lyrical abstraction which draws its inspiration from the 1950s and has continually swelled its waters (…); strong convictions that no fashion can undermine.”  Michel Ragon

A rare woman painter of Post-War Lyrical Abstraction, Huguette Arthur Bertrand was an active participant in the Parisian artistic scene, rubbing shoulders with Pierre Soulages, Gérard Schneider, Hans Hartung, Zao Wou-Ki and Chu Teh-Chun among others.

Huguette Arthur Bertrand participated in key exhibitions such as Les Mains éblouies [The Dazzled hands] at the Galerie Maeght (1949-1950) and exhibited regularly at the Salon de Mai and at the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles.

Her volatile work, which is definitively abstract from 1950 on, spreads out on colored backgrounds with controlled gestures, tight graphics and narrow black streaks, to progressively freer gestures, that are initially intense and nervous, becoming more serene, summarized in subtle white lines towards the 1980s.
Huguette Arthur Bertrand’s art is specific to her, unique, devoid of any code: abstraction that is neither sign nor writing.

In the 1970s, wanting to infuse “a trembling of space” into her works, she created murals.

“A painting is not a staging but the natural trace of an action, an event that takes place.”  Huguette Arthur Bertrand
“A painter of the dynamism of inner life, secret life with its outbursts and its retractions… a subtle and expressive colourist.” Michel Ragon

MAJOR PUBLIC COLLECTIONS

Major public collections

Aalborg (Denmark), Museum of Modern Art
Minneapolis, Walker Art Center
Paris, Musée national d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges-Pompidou
Paris, Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris
Paris, Bibliothèque nationale
Paris, Mobilier national
Quebec, Musée des Beaux-Arts

MAJOR PRIVATE COLLECTION

Major private collection

Geneva, Fondation Gandur pour l’Art

MAJOR EXHIBITIONS

Major exhibitions

Les Mains éblouies, Galerie Maeght, Paris, 1949 and 1950
Solo exhibition, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, 1957
La Escuela de Paris, Musée des Beaux-Arts, Mexico, 1959
50 ans de collage, solo exhibition, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris, 1964
Comparaison France-Japon, Grand Palais, Paris, 1992
L’Envolée lyrique, Paris 1945-1956, Musée du Luxembourg, Paris, 2006
Les Sujets de l’abstraction, Peinture non-figurative de la Seconde École de Paris (1946-1962), Fondation Gandur pour l’Art, Musée Rath, Geneva, 2011

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Bibliography

Huguette Arthur Bertrand, catalogue monographique, Editions Galerie Diane de Polignac, avril 2012, 88 p.

> Download the catalog

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