Georges Mathieu (1921-2012) - Composition with best wishes

This exquisite and rare greeting card artwork was created in 1963 by the renowned French artist Georges Mathieu and represents an intimate yet highly characteristic example from his celebrated Lyrical Abstraction period. Executed by hand in gold ink, black India ink, and vivid red pigment on thick handmade wove paper, the work is additionally inscribed by the artist with the dedication “with best wishes,” combining the qualities of both an original artwork and a personal presentation piece, thereby enhancing its uniqueness and collectible appeal.

The artwork itself measures approximately 9.8 × 23 cm, with framed dimensions of approximately 37 × 42 cm, and remains preserved in its original frame. The condition is excellent. Despite its relatively modest scale, the composition fully embodies the visual language for which Georges Mathieu became internationally renowned: dynamic calligraphic gestures, explosive linear energy, and a spontaneous yet highly rhythmic abstract composition. The striking contrast between the luminous gold ink and bold black lines, heightened by vivid red accents, creates a refined balance between elegance and expressive tension, reflecting Mathieu’s enduring fascination with movement, immediacy, and emotional intensity.

Georges Mathieu (1921–2012) is widely regarded as one of the founders of French Lyrical Abstraction and among the most important figures of postwar European abstract art. Rejecting the formal restraint of geometric abstraction, Mathieu developed a highly intuitive, emotional, and performative approach to painting. He became particularly known for executing works with remarkable speed, often painting live before audiences and transforming the act of painting itself into a dramatic form of performance. His experimental methods — including dripping techniques and the direct application of paint from the tube — played a significant role in shaping the development of later Abstract Expressionism and Action Painting.

Works by Georges Mathieu are held in the collections of major international institutions including the Museum of Modern Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Centre Pompidou, Tate, and the Art Institute of Chicago. In recent years, his major paintings have achieved increasingly strong results on the international auction market, further reinforcing his status as one of the most influential and collectible artists of postwar European abstraction.

Although intimate in scale, this 1963 work powerfully condenses the essential qualities of Mathieu’s artistic vocabulary — speed, gesture, energy, improvisation, and calligraphic tension — making it not only a visually compelling example of Lyrical Abstraction, but also an important and highly collectible original work on paper.