Background
Gerard Ernest Schneider was born on April 28, 1896, in Sainte-Croix, Switzerland.
In 1916 he was admitted to the École des Arts Décoratifs in Paris.
Gerard Ernest Schneider was born on April 28, 1896, in Sainte-Croix, Switzerland.
Schneider attended the Collège de Neuchâtel, in which town his father was established as a cabinetmaker and antique dealer. In 1910 he worked with the painter Alfred Blailé and began studying decoration. In 1916 he was admitted to the École des Arts Décoratifs in Paris, where he was encouraged by his teachers, who included Paul Renouard.
In 1918 Gerard was admitted to Cormon’s studio at the Beaux-Arts. Schneider paid frequent visits to the Musée du Luxembourg to look at the works of modern art. In 1922, after a visit to Venice and a brief return to Neuchâtel, where in 1920 he had an exhibition, Schneider settled permanently in Paris.
Until 1926 he earned a living as a picture restorer (which explains his impeccable technical mastery) and decorator. In that year, however, he showed for the first time at the Salon d’Automne with L’allée hyppique. This marked the conclusion of a post-impressionist period, “convinced of the error of the atmospheric effects and of the principle of the illusion of bodies in space,” he wrote in Revue du Vrai et du Beau (1926). A period of research into movement commenced during the years 1926 to 1931, followed by works derived from the imagination that investigated expression and construction (1930–1939), as well as a number of imaginary landscapes.
In 1932 Schneider began to paint non-figurative works, although on several occasions he still reverted to figuration. In 1936 he showed five works at the Salon des Surindépendants, including Figures dans un jardin, in which the body appears as no more than a sign. The critic of the Revue moderne saw in this “a style” and “the expression of movement included in the rapid stroke”. Schneider participated again in the Surindépendants in 1937 with Rencontre, in 1938 with three works titled Composition and a final time in 1945.
In 1937 Schneider ceased painting from nature. His palette began to darken, demonstrating a preference for black. Between the wars, the artist went through a period of intense investigation, stimulated by the artistic milieu he frequented, with its satisfying intellectual climate.
A familiar figure in the Paris musical world from 1926 onwards and a contributor to surrealist thought in the period around 1937, he met Paul Eluard, G. Hugnet, O. Dominguez and Luis Fernandez. He wrote his first poems Mots au vol, published in 1974 by Jean Orizet.
When war broke out in 1939, he was not required by the French army, despite his wish to enlist, and he remained in Paris where he met Picasso. Between 1941 and 1943 he took part in Gurdjieff’s teaching.
After a transitional period lasting from 1939 to 1943 and which tended to be non-figurative, Schneider finally committed to abstraction. Its invented forms made no reference to nature, and did not give in to the temptation of geometrics.
In 1946 he exhibited with Hartung, Deyrolle, Dewasne and Marie Raymond at the Centre de Recherches that Domela had recently founded in rue Cujas. Charles Estienne, to whom he had been introduced, organised the exhibition D’un art abstrait, accompanied by a collection of lithographs for which he wrote a preface (Opéra) and which included Del Marle, Engel Pak, Fleischmann, Miesztrik de Monda, Poliakoff and Warb.
He participated in the first Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, where he showed until 1949, and then from 1956 to 1958. He took part in a group exhibition at the Galerie Denise René in 1947, Peintures abstraites, with Magnelli, Dias, Duthoo, H. Nouveau, Piaubert, Poliakoff, Pouget, Reth, Vasarely, Dewasne, Deyrolle, Hartung and Raymond.
In the spring of 1947 his first solo exhibition was held at the Galerie Lydia Conti where, with Madeleine Rousseau’s backing, Schneider succeeded his friend Hartung: 13 works were hung including Opus 316. In December, there was a second exhibition with gouaches made during one of several stays at Gordes. Charles Estienne wrote of Schneider’s “simple but generous style which says everything” (Combat, 27 December 1947, De tout un peu). Gordes had been ‘discovered’ by Deyrolle, O. Le Corneur and Dewasne, and this village in the Vaucluse hills, which up until then had been frequented by André Lhote and his pupils painting from the motif, now became invested by the ‘abstracts’. Schneider and his wife were joined by Odile and Léon Degand and friends from the Galerie Denise René: Charles Estienne, Jacobsen, Gilioli, Poliakoff and Vasarely.
Until 1949 he worked on large flat surfaces, painted with glue in organised constructions, which led to the principles of monumental painting but which, however, did not come to anything from a lack of orders. He had a further exhibition in 1948 and Charles Estienne wrote an article, Art brut et art tout court, which appeared in Combat on 25 February. In 1950 he presented his final exhibition with Lydia Conti before joining the Galerie Louis Carré where, in 1951, he showed with Hartung and Lanskoy.
Gérard Schneider was shown in Paris at the Galerie Louis Carré as early as 1950.
From 1955 to 1960, Schneider’s work was exhibited at the famous Kootz Gallery in New York where an exclusivity contract connected the artist and the major American dealer Samuel Kootz.
From nervous gesture and volcanic composition, full of tension, of the 1950s followed “the light years” from Michel Ragon’s expression, which were marked by the balance of forms reflecting each other and the explosion of colour. He died on April 28, 1896 in Sainte-Croix, Switzerland.
Quotations:
“Painting should be looked in the same way as music is listened to.”
“The shape is born, whether lyrical or dramatic, with its colour and technical means, without any reference to external nature.”
Gerard was married.