The Académie des beaux-arts and the Gandur Foundation for the Art present Éloge de l’abstraction. The Painters of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in the Collections of the Gandur Foundation for the Art. 

These paintings, executed between 1945 and 1965, illustrate the singular careers of seven artists who were members of the Académie des Beaux-Arts and whose work contributed to the birth of a new abstraction known as “Art Informel”. 

This exhibition of twenty-five abstract paintings from the collections of the Foundation Gandur for the Art will take place at the Pavillon Comtesse de Caen from October 12th to November 26th 2023. These paintings, produced between 1945 and 1965, illustrate the singular careers of seven artists who were members of the Académie des Beaux-Arts in Paris and whose work contributed to the birth of a new abstraction known as Art Informel. These works, contrasting with the dominant geometric abstraction, are particularly revealing of their time. Despite their stylistic differences, they share a new conception of painting that is anything but academic.

The collection of works by Jean Bertholle, Chu Teh-Chun, Olivier Debré, Hans Hartung, Georges Mathieu, Antoni Tàpies and Zao Wou-Ki, chosen by Bertrand Dumas, curator at the Foundation and commissioner of this exhibition, embodies one of the most fertile periods in the history of twentieth-century art, when Paris was still the beacon of the international avant-garde.

“In this collective adventure, the artists used the most radical means to revolutionise the painting of their time. Their non-figurative, anti-geometric works invent the signs of a new pictorial language in the twists and turns of their materials and the power of their gestures. ”  Bertrand Dumas

The audience will be able to discover or rediscover two paintings by CHU Teh-Chun on this occasion.

Location, hours and admission :

Pavillon Comtesse de Caen de l’Académie des beaux-arts

Palais de l’Institut de France, 27 quai de Conti, Paris VIe

From 12 October to 26 November 2023
Tuesday to Sunday, 11 am to 6 pm
Free entrance

Image 1 : CHU Teh-Chun, Nostalgie, 1957. ©ADAGP, Paris, 2023

Image 2 :  CHU Teh-Chun, Composition n° 22, 1959. ©ADAGP, Paris, 2023