Souvenir de Jersey, 1973

Lucien Coutaud  

A protean and prolific French painter, Lucien Courtaud (1904-1977), sways from engravings to theater and opera decor not to mention, working on Aubusson tapestry (a cultural heritage of the UNESCO). After having studied at the Beaux Arts Nimes, he experiments with academies in Paris.

Parisian life makes him curious about the primitive works of the Louvre, but also those of Max Ernst, Paul Klee ...Eventually the artist becomes part of the restless artistic life by being friends with key figures of the Parisian cultural scene like Pablo Picasso, Jean Paul Sartre, Jacques Prévert, Paul Eluard, Boris Vian, Jean Paulhan ...

His approach is mainly focused on grasping the torments of the soul, through figurative figures touching abstraction, drawings, but also theater decorations (Medea de Cherubini, performed by Maria Callas at the Music Hall of Florence in 1953) . His paintings freeze the troubles of a human being, they are at the crossroads of surrealism and poetry. His various themes crystallize through "Eroticomagie", a painting filled with deep emotions and desires. This painting also influences his theater decorations, Soulier de Satin by Paul Claudel for the Comédie Française in 1943 or Jeux de Printemps at Opéra-comique in 1948.

Lucien Courtaud's ingenuity manages to highlight the obscurity of a volume of poetry « Une saison en enfer » by Arthur Rimbaud (through book lovers of France and Overseas Book Lovers in New York). This opus highlights the themes of Courtaud: torments, creation dizziness, awareness of definiteness. Poetry is the artist's shield, in order to diminish his obsessional anxieties.