Gérard Fromanger was born in 1939. His father, from an artistic family, was an amateur painter. The child, from a very young age, paints and draws. Fromanger will only make brief studies (Grande-Chaumiere, Beaux-Arts, Paris). He follows courses organized by the city of Paris. He becomes friends with the sculptor César, with Jacques Prévert and with the Giacometti brothers.
In his first period, the artist produces several figurative compositions ranging from gray to clear-obscure earth tones. He draws and becomes interested in lithography. Quickly, Fromanger changes his style; practicing painting with contrasting flat tints. He participates in the adventure of the Nouvelle Figuration (New Figuration) and imposes himself in the 60’s as one of the personalities of the Parisian artistic scene.
The artist participates from 1964, and for a long time afterwards, in the collective exhibitions (Salon de Mai, Salon de la Jeune Peinture, Salon Grands and Jeunes d’Aujourd’hui, etc.) in which he obtains important prizes. Some solo exhibitions are organized in his name (Grenoble, Namur, Paris, Sienne, etc.). In 1968, where the general ambiance is the contestation of the social issue of the student generation, Fromanger co-founds the Atelier of Beaux-Arts that will produce thousands of posters. He shoots film tracts with Jean-Luc Godard.
The artist has the habit of producing in series. He produces the sculptures ‘environmental’, creates costumes and sets for the ballet. Fromanger progressively moves away from the sociological topics that for a long time motivate his pictorial activity in aid of a creation specifically plastic or intended to be so. From a not long ago military pictorial activity, the artist passes onto an individual and hedonistic conception; there are from now on the pleasure of shadows, forms and colors. He divides his time between Sienne and Paris.
www.ftn-books.com has some Fromanger titles now available.
