Auguste Herbin Biography, Artworks
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HERBIN, Auguste (1882-1960)
Born at Quiévy, near Cambrai, France. Grew up at Le Cateau-Cambrésis, where he showed an aptitude for drawing. In 1898 he went to Lille and enrolled in the Ecole des Beaux-Arts. In 1901 he settled in Paris and began to paint, influenced by Impressionism. Sold some pictures in 1902 to Le Père Soulier, and in 1904 to Clovis Sagot. Exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants in 1905, and yearly thereafter until 1909. Stayed for a time at Bruges. From 1906 on he took an increasing interest in problems of color-form and departed more and more from "objective" representation. In 1907 he met Wilhelm Uhde, who bought some canvases from him; exhibited at the Salon d'Automne and visited Corsica and Hamburg. The pictures he submitted to the 1908 Salon d'Automne were rejected by the selection committee (Braque's work was rejected the same year). In 1909 he took a studio in the Bateau. Lavoir. From 1910 to 1912 he tackled problems closely related to Cubism, but took no part in the cubist exhibitions at the Salon des Indépendants. Stayed in 1911 at Hardricourt, Strasbourg and Andlau; in 1912 at Vadencourt. Lived and worked at Céret, near Perpignan, in 1913, combining rigorously geometric forms with brilliant color. Stayed for a while at Condésur-Aisne in 1914 (many of the canvases done there were destroyed in the war). First one-man show in Paris in 1917 at the Galerie L'Effort Moderne. Did frescos and geometric-abstract sculptures, in addition to painting, until 1921. Between 1922 and 1925 he reverted to figurative painting. He himself has designated the subsequent phases of his work as follows: 1925-1939, second abstract period; from 1939 on, abstract non-objective period. Exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants in 1927 and 1928, and founded the Abstraction-Creation group with Vantongerloo in 1932. Exhibited regularly at the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, of which he served as one of the chairmen until 1955. One-man shows held regularly at the Galerie Lydia Conti (until 1947), then at the Galerie Denise René, Paris. Published a book in 1949: L'art non figuratif non objectif. Exhibited at Liège in 1954 ( A.P.I.A.W.) and at the Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, in 1956. Herbin retrospectives were organized at Freiburgin-Breisgau in 1956 and at Turin in 1959 (at the exhibition "Pittori d'Oggi, Francia-Italia"). He died in Paris in 1960.
Bibliography:
A. Jakowski, Auguste Herbin, Paris 1933. -- R. Massat, Auguste Herbin; L. Estang, Herbin le rigoureux; P. Peissi, Herbin le pur, in Art d'Aujourd'hui No. 4, November 1949. -- P. Herbin Guéguen, in Art d'Aujourd'hui, No. 3-4, February-March 1952. -- L. Degand, L'Exposition Herbin, in Art d'Aujourd'hui, No. 3-4, February-March 1952. -- R. V. Gindertael, Le passage de la ligne, in Art d'Aujourd'hui, No. 7-8, October 1952. -- J. Alvard, Herbin, un art inobjectif, in Cimaise, August 1954. -- C. H. Herbin Sibert, in Cimaise, July 1955. -- R. Bouillier, Herbin, maitre du géométrisme, in Arts, Lettres, Spectacles, No. 620, May 1957. -- Jacques Lassaigne, Preface to the Herbin Retrospective, Turin 1959. -- D. Chevalier, Auguste Herbin, In Memoriam, in Art d'Aujourd'hui, No. 25, 1960.
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