Gustave Singier

Gustave Singier was born in 1909 in Warneton, Belgium. He spent his childhood in German occupied Belgium. From the age of 14, Gustave Singier starts to paint. He follows courses at the Boulle School for 3 years, then he works as a designer of interior architecture and furniture until 1936. He designs and paints at the same time as he works. Singier meets the painter Charles Walch who encourages him and reveals to him the liberty of pictorial expression, natably that which concerns color. He participates in numerous Parisian Salons from 1936 - Salon des Independants, Salon d’Automne, Salon des Tuileries, etc. He becomes friends with Alfred Manessier and Le Moal whose research suits his own spirit. From this period, his pictorial evolution intertwines with that of Manessier, depending on one or the other’s need to find an objective support in variations of abstract colors or, on the contrary, make an effort a more complete liberation. Elevated by a poetic sensation, there is in this art a new impressionism that is similar to cubist qcquisitions. In 1941, Singier joins to a group of young artists that show their work in the exhibition ‘Vingt Peintres de tradtion francaise’ (Twenty Painters of the French Tradition) at the Braun Gallery, an exhibition that will defy the occupied Army. In 1945 he is one of the founding members of the Salon de Mai. As with other painters of his generation, Singier discovers Kandinsky, Klee, Mondrian; this new path, is the determining factor in liberating Singier from pictorial form. The work of Singier will separate itself from Manessier, as he finds his own personal qualities. Resorting to tachiste techniques, his art becomes more fluid, thanks to the effects of watercolor. This is where the artist excels. The work of Gustave Singier expands in diverse ways: from mural painting, tapestry, stain glass, mosaics, costumes and theatre set design, burin engraving, lithographs, to illustrated works. Gustave Singier will teach in Paris, at the Ranson Academy from 1951-1954, then at the School of Fine Arts from 1967-1978. Gustave Singier, French since his naturalisation in 1947, dies in Paris in 1984.