The Musée Jean Couty in Lyon presents "Claude Venard, the Post-Cubism of Happiness," an exhibition featuring more than thirty major works from the private collection of the artist's widow. This exhibition, curated by Renata Venard in collaboration with Michel Estades, offers a journey into the painter's powerful, luminous, and colorful universe, through powerful works and themes dear to the artist.
Claude Venard (1913-1999) was a French painter of Burgundian origin associated with the post-cubism movement. After a brief stay at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he trained at the École des Arts Appliqués, which he attended for six years. He began his career as a restorer at the Louvre Museum before being drafted during the Second World War. Upon his return, he devoted himself entirely to painting and subsequently participated in numerous salons and exhibitions in France and abroad.
With his inventive spirit, Claude Venard enjoyed re-arranging rhythms, colors, and light, enveloping his forms with a black, angular line that would have a significant influence on many artists, such as Bernard Buffet. He creates a dynamic sensation, of the simultaneity of moods on a single canvas, which reveals his vision of the world and its colour as if perceived through a kaleidoscope.
A lover of life, Claude Venard conveyed his enthusiasm and joy of painting in his pictures. These compositions will illuminate the walls of the Musée Jean Couty.
To coincide with this exhibition, a special edition will be published by Beaux-Arts.
