Biography

Georges Collignon was born in Liège in 1923.

In 1937 he works in a printing house then he begins studying letterpress and earns a degree in the book school of Liège.
In 1942 in order to escape from compulsory work in Germany, he registers at the day classes of the Academy with Auguste Mambour as his teacher. At the liberation Robert Crommelynck substitutes Mambour. Collignon leaves the Academy, gets married and does various small jobs.
In 1943 he begins working as a figurative painter then turns to abstraction in 1947. Afterwards he has a short interlude influenced by Picasso.
In 1946 he has his first exhibitions in Brussels, at the Galerie Apollo, and in Liège, at the A.P.L.A.W. He moves to Paris in 1949 as a scholarship student and has his first exhibition there "Aux Mains Éblouies", Galerie Maeght.
In 1950 he wins the "Prix Jeune Peinture Belge" (young Belgian painter award) with Alechinsky, awarded for the first time, and participates in the "Cobra" movement. With Pol Bury, Georges Collignon creates the "Réalité Cobra" group, the first Belgian group to defend abstract art. After the expiration of the second scholarship granted to him by the French government, he decides to settle in Paris with his future wife Christiane Mambour and will stay there until 1969.
In 1957 he marries Christiane Mambour. In 1964 figurative elements appear in his work and integrate abstract forms. He moves back to Liège, in Monulphe Street, in the house of his father-in-law, Auguste Mambour, in 1969.
In 1977 he joins the Grand East of Belgium. Georges Collignon is a member of the Royal Belgian Academy of Sciences, Letters and Visual Arts.

He dies at home in February 2002.