Charles Lapicque (1898-1998) - L'accident

Artist: Charles LAPICQUE (1898-1988)

Title of the work: "The Accident"

Technique and support: Lithography on paper

Date: 1950

Notes: Signed at the bottom right, and numbered EA at the bottom left. Work referenced as No. 23 in the catalogue raisonné of Charles LAPICQUE's prints (B. BALANCI 1981)

Dimensions: 50.5 × 33.5 cm (unframed); framed in a wooden frame 58 × 40 cm

Other comments:
Excellent condition... (see photos)


LAPICQUE Charles (1898-1988)
Born in 1898 and died in 1988, Charles Lapicque is a French painter of the New School of Paris.
Adopted son of the general physiology professor Louis Lapicque, from whom he took the name, Charles Lapicque learned piano, drawing and violin during his childhood. In 1917, Charles Lapicque was mobilized and sent to the field artillery, where he gained knowledge of horses.
After the war Charles Lapicque enters the École centrale des arts et manufactures of Paris, where he specializes in industrial drawing. During 1920, he paints his very first landscapes. He begins a career as an engineer in electric power distribution near Lisieux before settling in Paris in 1924. Charles Lapicque participates in a choir and paints on Sundays. He develops a strong link between the two arts, which leads him to explore modes of projection in space.
Jeanne Bucher notices his abstract work and invites him to exhibit in a gallery. In 1928, the artist leaves his engineering profession and the following year he has his first solo exhibition.
Charles Lapicque returns to university to study physical sciences. After his doctorate, he becomes a preparatory assistant to Maurice Curie and frequents many physicists. This environment leads him to research color perception. To develop his theory, he enters the École supérieure d’optique. Subsequently he participates in several colloquia where he explains his research on blue and red in art.
In 1936 he meets Jean Wahl who enables him to begin philosophical and aesthetic reflection.
His work is gradually recognized by institutions with a commission of five large mural decorations for the Palais de la Découverte in Paris, one of which receives the honorable medal at the 1937 World’s Fair. He experiments with granite sculpture and is interested in primitive arts while learning new musical instruments.
In 1939, Charles Lapicque is mobilized at the National Center for Scientific Research where he is tasked with studying night vision and camouflage. In 1941, he takes part in Jean Bazaine’s first avant-garde exhibition and the exhibition of today’s painters at the Galerie de France, even as the Nazi government condemns him. He creates a series of paintings on the Liberation of Paris and Galerie Louis Carré exhibits him in 1946.
Charles Lapicque receives the Raoul Dufy Prize at the Venice Biennale in 1953, allowing him to spend a year discovering the city of Venice. Then the artist travels to Rome, Greece, Spain, the Netherlands, and finally travels across France from 1975 to 1980. He receives the Grand National Painting Prize in 1979.