Rachel Grataloup

Biographical references

• June 4, 1935 Born in Nantua (France)
• 1950 Attends classes at the School of Fine Arts in Lyon
• 1960 Enters the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Cachan
• 1964 Enters the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris in Chastel's studio where artists such as Viallat, Buraglio, Poli, Rouan, Kermarrec, Anne and Patrick Poirier are found...)
• 1965 - 1967 Winner of the Institut de France for the Casa Velasquez in Madrid (Spain)
• 1966 - 1969 Back in Paris, he had a studio at the Cité Internationale des Arts. There he met Anne and Patrick Poirier and met Malaval, Vélickovic and Serge Gainsbourg.
• 1967 - Winner of the Prix de Rome for painting, he left for the Villa Medici directed by the painter Balthus.
• 1970 - He left the Cité internationale des Arts to move into his studio at 37 rue Henri Barbusse (Paris 5) where he worked until his death.
• 1973 - 1980 First personal exhibition at the Galerie Marquet in Paris followed by many others in Paris and abroad
• 1980 - 1988 These years were marked by the creation of numerous monumental works: mosaic, Sophia Antipolis Mosque (1980); stained glass windows, tapestry and ceramics on the theme of "The Tree of Life", Saint-Jean-Baptiste church, Ajaccio (1982); stained glass window in the hall of the new Saint-Louis hospital, Paris (1984); mosaic in the hall for the Operational Division of Telecommunications Angers (1984), 840 m2 mosaic "The Three Trees", Paris La Défense (1988)
• 1986 - 1989 - Exhibition at the Lavignes-Bastille gallery (Paris). He was selected among the artists representing France at the exhibition "Les Peintres de l'Europe", organized in Strasbourg. He moved into a house-studio in Chevreuse, designed by his architect friend Denis Sloan.
• 1990 - 1995 A very important exhibition is organized by Jacqueline Moussion in her gallery in the Marais in 1990. He creates the mosaic for the RER station Porte de Clichy and the Bellefontaine station for the Toulouse metro (1992). The same year, the Closerie des Lilas presents a series of gouaches, watercolors and small format paintings on the theme "Erotic Paradise" with texts by Michel Tournier, Frédéric Beigbeder ... He exhibits at the Galerie du Centre - Paris (1993) In 1994, the famous philosopher and art critic devoted a very important analysis to Grataloup's work: "La Recherche des Mondes impliés" published by Ramsay.
• 1995 - 2001 From 1998, he integrated matte or polished metals into his paintings that reflect the reality of everyday life. On the occasion of a very large exhibition at Enrico Navarra, publication of a new monograph with a text by Michel Tournier (éditions Ramsay). In 2001, he created "Jardins et femmes Fleurs" with monochrome dotted figures. He added silk flowers that create intermediate reflections on the metals.
• 2002 - 2016 Very large personal exhibitions are organized in Paris (Chapelle de la Salpétrière 2002), Lyon (Chapelle de la Trinité 2003), Bayer Leverkusen (Germany 2005) where he is described as a "New Symbolist" by German critics. In 2007, he exhibited nearly 80 works during a major retrospective in Luxembourg (2007) as well as in 2009 at the Espace Moretti (Paris la Défense). In 2016, the Château de Vascoeuil (Normandy) organized a very large retrospective and his work was highly praised by critics.
• In March 2022, the town of Chevreuse and the Association "Les Amis du musée GRATALOUP" are dedicating his work with the opening of the "Musée GRATALOUP" which presents a theme linked to the painter's work every six months.