Louis Carmeil (1920-1999), Untitled, Anthropomorphic Composition, 1971, Oil On Canvas

Louis CARMEIL (1920-1999)
Untitled, anthropomorphic composition, 1971
Oil on canvas
Signed and dated on the back
48 x 36 cm

Nothing predestined the man nicknamed the “butcher painter” to art. Born in 1920 in Fumel in Lot-et-Garonne, Louis Carmeil, the son of a butcher, trained in this profession with his father. He did not follow any artistic training and began painting as an autodidact in 1955 at the age of thirty-five. His painting allowed him to transcend the reality of his daily life by letting his sensitivity express itself. He devoted himself to it entirely from 1968.

Louis Carmeil produced an elaborate work, unique in its genre, totally free from the trends of his time. Ambiguous and suggestive forms emerge from the pictorial material. They subtly evoke flesh and muscles in a contained eroticism charged with mystery.

A raw artist whose transgressive practice was intended to remain private, Louis Carmeil saw his work brought to the attention of the public in the 1970s: in galleries (Vence, Chave gallery) but also in museums (Paris, Centre Pompidou and the city's Museum of Modern Art).

Selected exhibitions

Louis Carmeil, The Butcher - reliquary paintings for slaughterhouses, Vence, Galerie Chave, Jan. - March 1974. .
The Singuliers of Art, Paris, Museum of Modern Art of the City, Jan. - March 1978.
Ateliers Aujourd'hui 11: Louis Carmeil, Paris, Centre Pompidou, National Museum of Modern Art, Nov. 1978 - Jan. 1979.
Louis Carmeil, The Butcher - retrospective, Vence, Galerie Chave, April-May 2011.

 Bibliography 

Louis Carmeil, The Butcher - reliquary paintings for slaughterhouses, exhibition cat., Vence, Galerie Chave, Jan. - March 1974.
Louis Carmeil, exhibition cat., Vence, Galerie Chave, 1977.