Lucas Suppin

The academic painter Lucas Suppin was born on July 2, 1911 in the province of Salzburg.

After classical training at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna and shaped by a figurative, conservative movement that shaped artistic life in Austria after the Second World War, Suppin left Austria for France in the early 1950s. He settled in St. Paul de Vence on the Cote d'Azur. In close connection with the great artists of the time living in southern France, such as Prévert, Picasso, Poliakoff, Manessier, Hartung or Soulages, he took an active part in this great world of art and became a representative of the ''école de Paris'' himself. In addition to the classical modernism of Matisse and Kandinsky, it was above all the most recent efforts in informal painting that rubbed off on his style. Their method of "celebrating" the sensuality of the material itself as unconditionally as possible was implemented by Suppin with his typical enthusiasm.

In 1967 he returned to Austria. Faced with resistance in his old homeland, he developed a new style with a great deal of creativity and skill, which is characterized by extreme diversity. Although his style thus shimmers between the most varied of suggestions, his painting essentially remains highly idiosyncratic and - not least due to the trend towards baroque exuberance - always clear and unmistakable. Peter Handke became an important spiritual companion and close friend at this time.

In his late work, Suppin is already over 80, he shows a hegemony of bright colors. Influenced by the light of the Sahara in Algeria, to which Suppin retreats during the winter months, the artist once again becomes very independent.

Suppin was a solitaire in Austria towards the end of the last century and was only recognized as such after a long time as an important representative of abstract painting. So it was only logical that on June 27, 1985, France made the Austrian painter Suppin a knight of the French Legion of Honour, an extremely rare honor for a foreigner.

Lucas Suppin

07/02/1911

Born in Untertauern, Salzburg

1929

 Graduation from middle school, first drawing courses with Prof. Toni Angerer in Salzburg.

1931 – 1933

Lessons with Prof. Hans Schachinger in Vienna and courses in drawing at the Kunstgewerbeschule in Vienna.

1933 – 1937

Studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, with Prof. Wilhelm Dachauer.

1937

Start of artistic career as academic painter and freelance artist in Salzburg. Member of the Salzburg Art Association.

1939 – 1945

Private soldier with partial artistic activity in the division.

1945 – 1950

Participation in the current exhibitions of the Salzburger Kunstverein.

First personal exhibition at the Nebehay Gallery in Salzburg.

Prices from the Office of the Salzburg State Government and the City of Salzburg Municipality.

1948

Admission to the Vienna Secession (expired due to subsequent long-term stays abroad).

France until 1967

In 1950 Suppin left Austria for France as a painter of figurative expressionism in order to go to the roots of modernism. For him, this step was the break from conventional painting and the constant search for new forms. From this time on, he writes Lucas with ''c'', replacing this letter was the start of a new life program. At that time he was in his early forties, open to new things - with the feeling that he had hardly developed any further artistically due to the stolen war years. A turbulent time began for him, his painting changed completely.

Marseille became his first French home for the first two years, like all artists of the time he commuted between the Côte d'Azur and Paris depending on the season. In Marseille, Suppin met the Polish painter Moise Kisling, who introduced him to the artist circle around Picasso. Suppin maintained close contact with the then representatives of the ''école de Paris'', including Poliakoff, Manessier, Hartung, Ubac, Soulages, etc. He takes an active part in this great world of art, at a time when one where everything meets and where abstraction or, as ''Michel Tapié de Celeyran'' - a close friend of Suppin's - put it, ''un art autre'' finds its new home.

From 1953 his new residence ''St. Paul de Vence'', where he was accepted into the circle of local artists. As a "newcomer" he enjoyed the privilege of being fully accepted in the famous painters' colony of St. Paul. Initially, Cubist works were created, Suppin gradually left representational painting and turned to "Informel" art, which rejected traditional forms. From this point on, his path led him to abstraction.

First encounters, sometimes close friendships and joint exhibitions with Picasso, Léger, Atlan, Prévert, Chagall, Fautrier, Tzara and others led to getting to know the French painting tradition, which underwent a complete change in Suppin's painting. So Suppin committed himself to pure color, to line, to the impulsive to the very end. Suppin was particularly influenced by Picasso and Matisse and gave him the decisive impetus to turn to abstract art. (http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lucas_Suppin)

1950 - 1952

Residence in Marseille. Exhibitions with artists living there.

Meets the painter Moïse Kisling.

1952

Personal exhibition at the Mourllot Gallery, Marseille.

1953

New residence in St Paul de Vence.

First encounters with Braque, Picasso, Chagall, Atlan, Miró, Poliakoff, Fautrier, Prévert, Tzara.

1953

Personal exhibition at the Valentin Gallery, Nice.

1954

Group exhibition in Vallauris, "Picasso and 25 painters".

1954

Participation in the exhibition "Art Liturgique" in Paris with Matisse and Rouault.

1954 - 1955

Execution of a fresco "The Golden Fleece" in the entrance hall at Dr. F. Poncelet in Brussels.

1956

Exhibition "Les peintres de la Côte d'Azur", with Picasso, Chagall, Miro, Atlan and others, Matarasso Gallery, Nice.

1956

Personal exhibition Gallery Matarasso, Nice.

1955 - 1957

Interior design and 2 frescoes in the house of E. Durant in Ninove near Brussels.

1957

Exhibition "Les peintres de St. Paul et ses amis" with Picasso, Poliakoff, Prévert and others, at the Matarasso Gallery, Nice.

1957

Personal exhibition Galerie de France, Nice.

1958

Commissioned by the Belgian Ministry of Agriculture, furnishing of the flower show at the world exhibition in Brussels.

1958

Execution of a fresco for Avocat Maître Segrestan in Melun.

1960

Personal exhibition, Kunstverein Salzburg in the Residenz.

1960

Execution of a fresco by O. Lampe in Kiel.

1962

Personal exhibition Galerie Martin, St. Paul de Vence.

1964

Exhibition Galerie Méditerranée, Cannes.

Discovered by the well-known French critic Michel Tapié de Céleyran - Accepted in the Stadler Gallery, Paris.

At the same time beginning of friendship with Jacques Prévert.

1965

Personal exhibition Galerie TAO, Palais Palffy, Vienna.

Personal exhibition at the TAO Gallery in Salzburg.

Group exhibition in Spoleto.

1966

Group exhibition at the Bayreuth Festival.

Austria after 1967

France became his residence for eighteen years. Family reasons brought him back to Salzburg in 1967. Schloss Freisaal became a creative place and a new home for him.

In the 1970s he developed his own new signature, he dealt with the material image, a technique with which he was a pioneer of the Austrian avant-garde. For years he dedicated himself to the material from earth, sand, rocks to precious metals and textiles. At the beginning of the 1980s, however, he abruptly broke with this design method.

At this time (1983-1988), Peter Handke became his most important intellectual companion and close friend. Long walks and deep conversations are reflected in the works of both artists. During the period of mutual friendship, Handke's film "Das Mark des Todes" (camera Xaver Schwarzenberger), a literary adaptation of Marguerite Dumas' book "la maladie de la mort" was made in Suppin's living quarters in 1986.

In his late work, Suppin is already over 80, he shows a hegemony of bright colors. Influenced by the light of the Sahara in Algeria, to which Suppin retreats during the winter months, the artist once again takes on a strong independence by means of a gestural impetus and an explosion of colour.

1967

Permanent residence in Salzburg again.

Group exhibition in Porec.

1967 - 1968

Execution of a wall fresco in the meeting room of the Salzburg municipal works.

1968

Design of a ceiling in the G. Guillaume hairdressing salon in Paris.

1968

Mosaic work "The Citizens" for a residential building in Klessheimer Allee in Salzburg.

1968 - 1970

Restoration of the Renaissance frescoes by the painter Hans Bockspergers d. Ä from the year 1558, in the Freisaal Castle, Salzburg

1970

Two mosaics in the "Mother-Child- and Babies' Home" in Salzburg.

1972

Personal exhibition at the TAO Gallery, Vienna.

Exhibition at Bräckerbohm, Cologne.

1973

Awarded the title "Professor" by the Austrian Federal President.

1974

Personal exhibition Maison Collette Bovy, Liège.

Personal exhibition at Bräckerbohm, Cologne.

1974

One large and four small stained glass windows and a bronze door for the funeral parlor in Bürmoos, Salzburg.

1975

Personal exhibition in the Trakl Haus Salzburg, organized by the French Cultural Institute Salzburg. Opening by Michel Tapié de Céleyran.

1975

Personal exhibition in Dortmund at the invitation of the localn community.

1976

Two panel paintings (St. Maria and St. Rupert) for the chapel of the State Psychiatric Clinic in Salzburg.

Personal exhibition Galerie Cyrus, Paris conducted by Michel Tapié de Céleyran.

Personal exhibition at the Palais du Tau, Reims, at the invitation of the local municipality.

Large wall painting for a housing estate in Salzburg Liefering.

1977

Personal exhibition at Palais Lobkowitz, Vienna, organized by the Center Culturel Français and the French Embassy.

1980

Large-scale ceiling painting for the new Mozarteum in Salzburg (approx. 140m2).

Design of a wall for the Salzburger Landes-Hypothekenbank AG, Dreifaltigkeitsgasse branch.

1981

Personal exhibition in the museum pavilion of the Municipality of Salzburg.

1981

Awarded the "Golden Medal of Merit of the State of Salzburg" by the Salzburg state government.

1982

Personal exhibition in the "Gallery in the State Opera", Vienna, organized by the Federal Minister for Education and Art, Vice Chancellor Dr. Fred Sinowatz, from the Office of the Salzburg State Government, the Austrian Federal Theater Association and the management of the Vienna State Opera.

1983

Personal exhibition in Arles, at the invitation of the local municipality and in cooperation with the Kulturinstitut der Österr. Embassy in Paris as part of the “10 Days of Austria in Arles” event.

Presentation of a picture to the President of the French Republic François Mitterrand.

1984

Wall work for the vocational school III, Salzburg (approx. 80m2).

Design of a sculpture for Ford Schmidt, Salzburg.

1984

Medal of the Honor of the City of Reims.

1985

Wall work for the large hall in the new higher technical federal college, HTL Salzburg (approx. 280m2).

1985

Personal exhibition "Painting on Paper" in the Altnöder Gallery, Salzburg.

Participation in the exhibition "Centre International d'Art Contemporain" C.I.A.C. in Paris.

1985

Nommé Chevalier de la "Legion d'Honneur" par the President de la République Francaise, François Mitterrand.

July 1985: Presentation of the "French Legion of Honour" in Mirabell Palace in Salzburg by the French Ambassador in Vienna.

1986

Presentation of the Honorary Cup of the State of Salzburg.

1987 - 1988

Wall design of the entrance hall of the Danube Tower in Vienna.

1989/1990

Two stays in the Sahara, Algeria (creation of the series "Sahara").

1990

Personal exhibition at the French cultural institute “En pensant à Matisse”, Palais-Clam-Gallas, Vienna.

1991

Presentation of the “Cross of Honor for Science and Art of the Republic of Austria” by the Governor of Salzburg.

Anniversary exhibition for the 80th birthday in the Weihergut Gallery, Salzburg.

1992

Print of a picture and text about him, in the complete edition "Jacques Prévert"; Oeuvres Completes, Edition Gallimard 1992, Vol. II, p 555.

1993

Personal exhibition gallery Schloß Porcia, Spittal a.d. Drau.

1995

Personal exhibition in the Romanesque cellar of the Landeshypothekenbank AG Salzburg.

1996

Personal exhibition “Works on Paper” Weihergut Gallery, Salzburg.

✝ February 24, 1998 in Salzburg

Over the years, paintings have been sold to various private collections in Europe and overseas, to the National Museum in Chile, to the Museum of the 20th Century in Vienna, to the Museum Palais Liechtenstein and the Graphic Collection Albertina in Vienna. Purchases by the Ministry for Education and Art, the Salzburg provincial government and the Salzburg magistrate. In the last few years he has withdrawn from the active culture business, only a few pictures were created in the studio.