Claude Venard, French 1913-1999- Geometrie; oil on canvas, signed lower right, titled on the stretcher on the reverse, 46x55cm, (ARR) Provenance: Alon Zakaim Fine Art, London; Private Collection, London; thence by descent Note: This piece is...

Claude Venard, French 1913-1999- Geometrie; oil on canvas, signed lower right, titled on the stretcher on the reverse, 46x55cm, (ARR) Provenance: Alon Zakaim Fine Art, London; Private Collection, London; thence by descent Note: This piece is accompanied with a certificate of authenticity from Alain Vercel. Claude Venard was a French painter who studied at the Ecole des Arts Appliques in Paris, and worked as a master restorer at the Louvre Museum. He exhibited in the first exhibition of the ‘Forces Nouvelles’ group, alongside contemporaries such as Andre Marchand, Roger Humblot and Pierre Tal-Coat. However, he soon turned against this group, moving towards a more abstract approach. Venard’s thick impasto, which was achieved through the application of paint directly with a palette knife, is a typical feature of his paintings, and can be seen clearly in this piece. The substantial influence of Cubism on Venard’s work is evident from his bold, abstract depiction of space, a flattening of objects, and a focus on the representation of contrasting and interconnected shapes. Examples of Venard’s work are held in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, the Musee d’Art Moderne in Paris, the Tate in London, and the Tokyo Museum.