He was one of the founders, in 1969, of the group Supports/Surfaces, but also two years later, with his friends Vincent Bioules, Marc Devade and Daniel Dezeuze, of the magazine Painting, theoretical notebooks, of which he was editorial director. Louis Cane died in Paris on November 4, at the age of 80.
Born in Beaulieu-sur-Mer (Alpes-Maritimes) on December 13, 1943, he studied at the School of Decorative Arts in Nice (1961) and then at the National School of Decorative Arts in Paris (1964), where he graduated with a Bachelor’s degree. in Interior Architecture, section “Mural painting and frescoes”.
It was with this very classical training – extended for a year at the National School of Fine Arts in Paris, where he prepared for the last competition for the Rome Prize, that of 1968 – that he produced his first works in 1967. important works, abstract cut-out papers and canvases where, using a pad, he printed in columns, in different colors, the words “LOUIS CANE ARTIST PAINTER”. His first exhibition, in 1969 in Paris, Givaudan gallery, showed red papers and printed canvases. They are currently sold between 550 and 950 francs, prices justified by a text that details the cost of the material, the time spent making the work and the profit linked to the act of creation. This revolutionary approach, to the extent that it places art on the same level as any other production, artisanal or industrial, has an immediate result: it does not sell anything…
But its action, its proximity to the group that revolves around the magazine As it is, founded by Philippe Sollers, and the creation of Painting, theoretical notebooks, make Louis Cane one of the most promising young artists of the early 1970s. This is, in any case, the opinion of the then beginner dealers Daniel Templon and Yvon Lambert, who in turn exhibited his work, which during this period It consisted of large cut-out canvases. , devoid of frames and hanging loosely from the wall, spilling to the floor. The series, called “Sol/Mur”, shows a radical geometric abstraction, greatly inspired by American minimalism.
An expressionist touch
The second half of the 1970s was a crucial period: a group exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, two more personal exhibitions at the Louisiana Museum (Denmark) and the Museum of Contemporary Art in Montreal, first purchases at the Center Pompidou and then in the prefiguration phase, followed, after its inauguration, by an exhibition curated by Claire Stoullig and Alfred Pacquement. In 1977, a first exhibition at Leo Castelli, then the most important gallery owner in New York, and an invitation to Documenta 6, in Cassel (Germany), where he insisted on being on the side of American artists: this confrontation will always be close. to your heart.
At the same time, he progressively abandoned abstraction, encouraged by Philippe Sollers, who encouraged him to paint nude women. He takes her at his word, but goes further by depicting childbirth. Then he painted women in the bath, Annunciations, Flood, variations of Las Meninas by Velásquez, in Lunch in the grass by Manet and also began to practice sculpture…
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