Canvas By Alain Le Yaouanc Start Of Year 60

Dimensions: 65 x 81 cm

PERIOD 1960/1970 

Produced in his early period, this canvas illustrates Alain Le Yaouanc's early geometric and architectonic exploration. In a reduced range of muted tones
—gray, black, beige, and blue-gray
—the artist arranges rectangular and trapezoidal planes that seem to interlock and unfold in depth. The subtle addition of orange lines punctuates the composition and introduces a visual rhythm that guides the eye. The sphere, isolated on the left side, contrasts with the angular rigor of the whole, creating a poetic tension between balance and instability. This work testifies to Le Yaouanc's early interest in the construction of imaginary spaces where geometry becomes a plastic language and vector of abstraction.
Alain Le Yaouanc, born in 1940 in Alençon, grew up between Brittany and Normandy before leaving for the United States at the age of sixteen, where he studied drawing and exhibited from 1957.
After a stint at the Art Students League in New York and a mobilization in Algeria, he settled in Rouen in 1962 where he combined his activity as an antique dealer with artistic creation. His large gouaches, noticed by Patrick Waldberg and Aimé Maeght, integrated him into the world of the Galerie Maeght and the surrealist circle from 1965.
From 1967, he exhibited alongside the great names of the movement in France and Europe.
Louis Aragon, who closely followed his work, dedicated several texts to him, including La Petite Phrase (1972). The 1970s were marked by intense activity: sets for Roland Petit (La Rose malade, 1973), exhibitions in Italy, Iran, Scandinavia, at the FIAC and the Menton Biennale. In 1975, he participated in politically engaged events such as the Pour Chypre public auction and held numerous solo exhibitions in France. Lithographs became a privileged field, with illustrated albums in dialogue with writers such as Eugène Guillevic or Aragon (Magnificat, Le Chemin de Ronde, Stone upon Stone).
Between 1979 and 1982, his works were presented at the FIAC, Saint-Paul-de-Vence, New York (Pierre Cardin) and Art Basel. Guest of honor at the Salon de Rouen in 1981, he also created large marble marquetry. In the 1980s, he opened up to the United States (Dallas, ArtExpo) and to monumental projects, notably marble mosaics, praised by the Texas Society of Architects and by UNESCO, which entrusted him with the poster for the operation Mémoires des rues, mémoire du monde (1985). The following decades confirmed his international influence: exhibitions in Metz, Monaco, Saint-Arnoult, Aix-en-Provence, Poitiers, Bilbao and Beirut. In 1998, he created a monumental mosaic for the University of Poitiers (Futuroscope).
But in 1999, a seizure of his Parisian studio dispersed part of his work, altering his public reputation. Having long been based on rue Beautreillis, in the Marais, he nevertheless pursues a daily creative discipline - collages, gouaches, mosaics - marked by monumentality and formal lyricism.
In 2010, he participated in the exhibition Aragon and Modern Art. In 2012, he designed a mosaic fresco for Gérard Depardieu's Parisian home. In 2016, he exhibited in Marrakech as part of the Biennale. Faithful to an aesthetic that blends surrealism, abstraction, and literary references, Alain Le Yaouanc remains a singular figure in the contemporary art scene, between plastic invention, dialogue with poets, and the quest for a universe where the image suspends time.