Jetée

MAURICE ARDOUIN   

b.1932

French School

Jetée  

Oil on canvas, signed 

89 x 146 cms

35 x 57 1/2 inches

 

Maurice Ardouin was born in Tarare in the Rhone region of France on 11th October 1932.

He studied art at L'École Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Lyon and obtained his diploma in 1953 together with first prize for portraiture and composition.

He came to Paris in 1955 and worked with a print maker until 1957. Initially, he was primarily a figure painter and starting in 1956, exhibited at the annual shows at Le Salon d'Automne and at La Jeune Peinture in Paris although he had contributed some works to a show at Le Casino de Vals-les-Bains in 1952. His first solo show was with Robert Philippe in 1960 in Paris. This was followed by another there in 1962 and then an exhibition at Le National des Beaux-Arts, in conjunction with other artists, in the same year. Later, he had further one man shows, particularly in the United States, and he exhibited landscapes, harbour scenes, architectural views and still-lifes.

He belonged to a time when art was going through fundamental changes: images were forceful and the figurations more radical; furthermore art had become politically engaged and he was very much part of this new expression.