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Biography of Charles Lapicque
Painter of the New School of Paris, born in Theizé in 1898, his family moved to Paris in 1909. Charles Lapicque was the adopted son of the professor of general physiology Louis Lapicque, whose name he took. As a child, he learned the piano, drawing and violin. In 1917, the young man was mobilized for the First World War and left to fight in the field artillery. In 1919, he began studying engineering in Paris. During the year 1920, he painted his very first landscapes. Raised in a family passionate about science and the arts, Charles Lapicque would multiply his experiences throughout his artistic and scientific life. He graduated from the École Centrale in 1921 and worked as an engineer until 1928.
In the immediate post-war period, the strong impulse he felt for art led him to devote a large part of his time to self-taught painting. This deep need would lead him to abandon his career as an engineer to devote himself full-time to the practice of painting. Charles Lapicque would have his first solo exhibition in 1929, at the Jeanne Bucher gallery (founded in 1925), following an invitation from its founder to join the gallery's group of artists.
In 1931, he accepted a position as a preparator at the Faculty of Sciences in Paris, and thus took advantage of the laboratory to carry out research on colors. To develop his theory, he joined the Ecole supérieure d'optique. In 1939, he developed the “grid system”, a derivative of Fauvism, Cubism and medieval art. This system would be the culmination of his optical and pictorial discoveries. His work was gradually recognized by institutions with an order for five large wall decorations for the Palais de la Découverte in Paris, one of which received the Medal of Honor at the 1937 World's Fair. He experimented with granite sculpture and became interested in primitive arts while learning new musical instruments.In 1941, Charles Lapicque participated in Jean Bazaine's first avant-garde exhibition and in the exhibition of contemporary painters at the Galerie de France. He produced a series of paintings on the Liberation of Paris and the Galerie Louis Carré exhibited it in 1946.His works, between 1939 and 1943, were decisive for the development of non-conventional painting. figurative. It was during this period that Charles Lapicque met the philosopher Gabriel Marcel who introduced him to Jean Wahl, initiating his philosophical and aesthetic reflection. In 1943, he abandoned his career as a scientist to devote himself exclusively to his art. Against the dominant trends of the 1950s, he showed his attachment to figuration, while making some attempts at abstract art.He kept a predilection for the theme of the sea and its colors throughout his life.In 1953, Charles Lapicque received the Raoul Dufy Prize at the Venice Biennale, allowing him to discover the city of Venice for a year. Then the artist went to Rome, Greece, Spain, Holland and finally traveled around France from 1975 to 1980. He received the Grand Prix National de Peinture in 1979.Charles Lapicque died in Orsay in 1988, he was 89 years old.
