Presentation

Georges Collignon is one of the main artists of the second half of the 20th century. At the turn of the middle of the century, he takes part in some pictorial innovative experiences as Cobra, the Abstract Art, full of boundless potentialities. In Paris, where he settles until his return in Liège in 1969, he is on all roads leading to non-figuration. The shaping colour becomes autonomous from representation and takes some kind of liberty that the artist’s creativity alone can master.

During the 60ies, Collignon progressively reintroduces figuration into abstraction: a happy alliance giving birth to unusual, daring and incomparable works. This will be one of his most brilliant periods. The human face, women and eroticism take their place back into his paintings. This “new figuration”, hedonistic, jubilant, full of humour and veiled references, is going to give skilful compositions including armours, jumping jacks, and golden or silver foils. They owe much to the Italian Quattrocento, to the icons and to Klimt, the Viennese painter. And a certain kind of surrealism is not far away…

From the end of the 80ies, Collignon is going to try to synthesize his 40 years of painting. He remains faithful to drawing (of which Mambour, Brasseur and Bonvoisin had given him the taste back in the Academy years). The subtle feeling for construction is still present, his touch, sometimes vibrating, like Bonnard’s, sometimes smooth, plays with colour hints but above all, his taste for painting, his sensuality in inventing again and again will remain present until the end.

Georges Collignon’s pictorial adventure ends up as an art free from all schools and styles, as a new "baroque", to show that we live in a multiple and uncertain world and that only Art can help it survive.