Quentin Bernard - Automatic Writing

Bernard Quentin (b. 1923)
Automatic writing, 1960
Fat pastel on paper
Dimensions: 26 x 36 (with frame: 35 x 44)
Signed and dated at the bottom right of the work


Bernard Quentin (course until the 1950s): he studied at the National School of Fine Arts in Paris and the Decorative Arts. After the war, he frequented the House of French Thought and binds himself with Picasso. At the same time, he became a faithful follower of Saint-Germain-des-Prés and made the acquaintance of Sartre, Artaud, Eluard, Ernst, Giacometti, Vian, Tzara, Peret, etc. In 1945, his first solo exhibition was held in the Gallery of Art Students at the Maison de l'Université in Paris. This exhibition then went on to Zurich, Bern and Geneva in 1946, where he became acquainted with the work of Paul Klee. The work that he then engaged on ideograms and writing - and which would be the guiding thread of his work - pushed him more and more towards abstraction. Participating in the Salon des Réalités nouvelles in 1947, he traveled to Scandinavia to study runic writings, and in Italy, where he discovered futuristic works with automatic writings and monumental letters.