Paul Charlot

Paul Charlot (1906-1985) is a major post-war French painter, an emblematic figure of the Second School of Paris. Praised from his beginnings by critics for the expressive power of his works, he developed a singular aesthetic at the border of poetic figuration and rigorously architectured abstraction, which today captivates the most demanding collectors of modern art.

An excellent education and early recognition

From the 1930s, he established himself in the great Parisian salons (Salon d'Automne, Salon des Tuileries) through his mastery of color. The famous art critic Waldemar-George praises him as an exceptional colorist, highlighting the tactile poetry of his materials. His works were integrated into important public and private collections very early on, confirming his place in the elite of the French art scene.

A masterful artistic trajectory: from matter to light

His first canvases celebrate nature through generous impasto and a vibrant palette inherited from Fauvism. The 1950s mark a decisive turning point where his practice becomes radical. He composes his famous series of "forests", dark and rigorous architectures where the line structures space with an almost mystical power. Liberated from form in the 1960s and 1970s, Charlot turns towards purely decorative works. He deploys large flat areas of pure color, where deep blues and brilliant reds dialogue in an absolute luminous harmony.

His current rediscovery by international galleries places the artist in the lineage of the great masters of French non-figuration. The perfect balance between the rigor of his composition and the audacity of his palette gives his canvases a masterful visual presence, ideal for sublimating contemporary interiors.

Paul Charlot's career is marked by major artistic events that testify to his immediate recognition by his peers and by the most prestigious institutions of modern art.

A member of the mythical Salon d'Automne, to which he joined the committee in 1960, he regularly exhibited his paintings at the Salon des Indépendants and the Salon des Tuileries, epicenters of the Parisian avant-garde. In 1948, he obtained his first major recognition with a solo exhibition of twenty key paintings at the Galerie Hermann in Paris, which became his first official dealer and centralized his key works. In 1953, he benefited from international recognition by being invited to the international exhibition "Ceramics of the Masters of contemporary painting" presented at the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Lausanne and Zurich. For nearly thirty years, from 195 to 1983, the famous Galerie Chardin in Paris – a high point of the modern art market on the Left Bank – organized its major solo exhibitions, notably the thematic exhibition "The Joy of Living" in 1963 and that of his 40th anniversary of painting in 1983. His career is also marked by prestigious museum exhibitions, notably at the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris with the group "Évolution" in 1959, at the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Nancy alongside Jacques Villon in 1961, and at the Musée Despiau-Wlérick in 1967.
Ultimate proof of his heritage value and the historical interest of his work, the creations of Paul Charlot have been acquired by major state collections. The Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris thus preserves masterpieces from his formal research on nature and geometrization, such as his famous color lithograph "The Black Trees" acquired in 195. In addition to his museum acquisitions, the French state has called upon the artist's talent for large decorative architectural integrations, as in his monumental wall mosaic created for the Cité Universitaire d'Amiens in 1969.