Gustave SINGIER

Gustave Singier – Life, Colour Lithographs and Original Prints

Born at Warneton, in Belgian West Flanders, on 11 February 1909, and dying in Paris on 5 May 1984, Gustave Singier belongs to the generation of painters who gave the post-war School of Paris its distinctive voice: a non-figurative art built on colour, rhythm and remembered landscape rather than on pure geometry. A founder of the Salon de Mai, an artist of the Galerie de France and later a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts, he left a substantial body of original colour lithographs, most of them printed in the 1950s and 1960s, which remain an excellent way to collect his work.

Le Coin des Arts currently offers four original prints by Gustave Singier: the colour lithographs L’Ancêtre (1957) and La Patriette de Gonzalve (1957), the latter published by the Galerie de France and printed by Mourlot; an untitled lithograph of 1964; and an untitled intaglio print of 1978. Each sheet was chosen for the freshness of its colour, its pencil signature, its margins and its condition.

A cabinet-maker’s son: Flanders to Paris (1909–1936)

Singier spent his early childhood in a Belgium occupied by German troops during the First World War. In 1919 the family settled in Paris, where his father worked as a cabinet-maker. He began to paint at around fourteen, but his formal training was in the applied arts: from 1923 to 1926 he studied at the École Boulle, the Parisian school of furniture and decorative crafts. From 1927 he earned his living as a draughtsman for a decorator, designing interiors, furniture and shop fittings for department stores, while painting on his own account outside any academy.

War years and the “Young Painters of French Tradition” (1936–1944)

The turning point came in 1936, when he met the painter Charles Walch, who encouraged him and introduced his work to the Paris Salons. Still a Belgian national in 1940, Singier was called up into the Belgian army and sent to Bagnols-sur-Cèze after the German invasion. Back in Paris, he worked from 1941 to 1944 in his father’s joinery workshop. In 1941 he was among the artists gathered by Jean Bazaine at the Galerie Braun for the exhibition “Vingt jeunes peintres de tradition française”, together with Alfred Manessier, Maurice Estève, Charles Lapicque, Jean Le Moal and Édouard Pignon. Its reassuringly patriotic title masked a defence of modern, colour-driven painting at a time when the occupying power denounced modern art.

Salon de Mai, Galerie de France and international recognition (1945–1959)

At the Liberation Singier was one of the founding members of the Salon de Mai (1945) and remained one of its principal organisers. He now discovered Kandinsky, Klee and Mondrian; their interest in folk art, children’s drawing and non-Western art encouraged him to reduce his compositions to bold shapes set against bright grounds. He became a French citizen in 1947 and held his first solo exhibition in 1949 at the Galerie Billiet-Caputo. He went on to show with René Drouin and then, for many years, with the Galerie de France run by Myriam Prévot and Gildo Caputo, alongside Hans Hartung, Pierre Soulages and Zao Wou-Ki. From 1951 to 1954 he taught at the Académie Ranson. Paintings such as Les Oliviers et la mer (1948) and Ciel et mer (1956) turn the memory of a landscape into a lattice of signs and coloured planes. The French State bought Nocturne égyptien (1955) in 1956; it is now in the Musée national d’art moderne at the Centre Pompidou. In 1955 he took part in the first documenta in Kassel, listed among the French artists.

Murals, stage design and the Beaux-Arts studio (1960–1984)

Singier worked well beyond the easel: he designed tapestry and stained-glass cartoons, mosaics and murals, as well as sets and costumes, notably for Jean Vilar’s Théâtre National Populaire and for the Paris Opéra. In 1967 André Malraux appointed him to a painting studio at the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris – the studio once led by Gustave Moreau – where he taught until 1978. Major canvases of the period include Méridienne agitée (1961). Among his late series are the four Maldoror paintings (1975–1977), inspired by Lautréamont. He died in Paris in May 1984 and is buried in Montparnasse Cemetery.

Singier’s prints: publishers, printers and editions

Singier’s preferred printmaking medium was colour lithography, ideally suited to his flat, saturated colour and outlined signs. Two publishers stand out in the 1950s. The first is L’Œuvre Gravée, the print-publishing house founded by Nesto Jacometti and active in Paris and Zurich, which issued Le Voyageur (1954, a six-colour lithograph in an edition of 200 on BFK Rives, with artist’s proofs on Japan paper), Heure méridienne (1957, edition of 200) and Lagune nuit (1957, edition of 150); its impressions carry the publisher’s blindstamp at lower left. The second is the Galerie de France, which in 1956 commissioned a suite of colour lithographs to accompany the Traité des appareils, a text by André Frédérique set to a score by Pierre Barbaud. Printed by Mourlot in 1957, the plates bear whimsical titles such as La Patriette de Gonzalve, Le Contrapunctor de Buxtehude and Le Rotatostroï du barine Michaël. Singier also worked in intaglio, and illustrated several books with etchings or lithographs.

In Britain his prints can be seen in the University of Warwick Art Collection, which owns Château feu (1959), a six-colour lithograph numbered 33/140. We have not identified a published catalogue raisonné of Singier’s prints; sheets are therefore described by title, date, technique, edition and publisher. For L’Œuvre Gravée editions, some German-language auction houses cite a “Wyder 1994” reference; in the same year the Museo Casorella devoted a two-volume publication to Jacometti’s publishing and collection.

Collecting Gustave Singier’s prints: a buyer’s guide

Signature and numbering. Edition impressions are signed in pencil “G. Singier” or “Singier”, often dated, and numbered (27/200, 33/140 and so on). Sheets marked “HC” or “E.A.” are hors commerce or artist’s proofs. See our notes on the signature and the edition.

Publisher and blindstamp. In the absence of a catalogue raisonné, a L’Œuvre Gravée blindstamp or a Galerie de France provenance is the most useful way to place a sheet.

Paper and margins. BFK Rives wove paper is the usual support; some proofs are on Japan. Full margins are preferable.

Condition. Singier’s reds, yellows and blues are sensitive to light: check for fading, foxing and old hinge or tape stains, and choose UV-filtering glazing when framing.

Pitfalls. Exhibition posters and offset reproductions are not original prints. Our guarantees are set out on our authenticity page; see also what is an original print.

The gallery also selects prints by painters close to Singier: Jean Bazaine, Alfred Manessier, Maurice Estève, Édouard Pignon and Pierre Soulages. Explore the School of Paris and Lyrical Abstraction and our engravings and lithographs.

Sources and further reading

Encyclopædia Universalis, “Singier Gustave (1909-1984)” · University of Warwick Art Collection – Château feu (1959) · Centre Pompidou – Nocturne égyptien · MoMA – Gustave Singier · Walter Grasskamp – documenta 1955–1972 (OnCurating) · Universalis – Gustave Singier · The Annex Galleries – biography