HUGUETTE ARTHUR BERTRAND

One of the few women artists of the Lyrical Abstraction movement, Huguette Arthur Bertrand was an active member of the Post-War Paris art scene, rubbing shoulders with Pierre Soulages, Hans Hartung, Serge Poliakoff, Jean Dewasne, Martin Barré and Pierre Dmitrienko among many others.

Arriving in Paris after the Liberation, Bertrand quickly became immersed into the avant-garde circles of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and began exhibiting at the Salon des Moins de Trente Ans. In 1947 Bertrand was awarded the Laureate du Concours, which enabled her to spend several months in Prague. By 1949 Bertrand’s paintings had reached pure abstraction; she exhibited these for the first time at the Salon in May of that year. At this time Bertrand also joined an elite group of avant-garde artists known as Les Mains Éblouies and exhibited with them at Galerie Maeght. Fellow artists included Deyrolle, Dewasne, Poliakoff, and Magnelli.

Being a woman painter was rare in the masculine artistic landscape of Post-War Paris. Bertrand immersed herself fully in the buzzing art world of Montparnasse and Saint-Germain-des-Prés. On Saturdays she would visit Jean-Michel Atlan’s studio with Marcelle Loubchansky. Huguette participated with passion in this artistic effervescence, marked by lively debates between figurative and abstract art, but also between supporters of “cold” abstraction and those of “warm” abstraction; one geometric, the other gestural, lyrical, guided by a free and spontaneous gesture.

Bertrand was awarded the prestigious Prix Fénéon in 1955 and began to attract international attention. That year she held a solo show in Brussels, and in 1956 had a major show in New York at Gallery Meltzer. Concurrently, Huguette participated in the ground-breaking show “Aventure de l’Art Abstrait” in Paris, organised by Michael Ragon, and Le Corbusier’s Festival d’Avant-garde. Over the next decade she exhibited extensively in major exhibitions around the world including: 1957 Paris Biennale; Peintres de l’Aujourd’hui, Turin; a solo show in Brussels; 50 Années de Peinture Abstraite, Galerie Craven, Paris; 1958: L’École de Paris, Kunsthalle Manheim; a solo show in Copenhagen; Six Painters from Paris, Cleveland, USA; The New School of Paris, Tokyo; 1960: L’École de Paris, Galerie Charpentier, Paris; French Art, Jerusalem. In 1966 she was awarded the Prix de la Biennale de Menton in recognition of her distinguished achievements.

Since her death in 2005 Bertrand's work continues to be exhibited amongst the leading artists of her era. Exhibitions include: “L’Envolée Lyrique: 1945-56”, Musée de Luxembourg, Paris, 2006; “Divergences-Convergences”, Musée de l’Orangerie, Paris, 2006; “Les Sujets de l’Abstraction”, Musée Rath, Geneva, 2011; Musée d’Art Contemporain, Angers, 2011; “Femmes Années 50’s”, Musée Soulages, Rodez, 2019.

Bertrand is today widely recognised as one of the most important painters of Post-War Paris, and her works hang in some of the world's most prestigious institutions including the Centre Pompidou in Paris.