Background
Camille Briand was born on September 17, 1907, in Nantes, Pays de la Loire, France.
Camille Briand was born on September 17, 1907, in Nantes, Pays de la Loire, France.
Bryen arrived in Paris in 1926. At the age of twenty, he published Opopanax, his first collection of poems. Influenced by Dada and Surrealism, his poems were similar to those published in their reviews. Bryen also created sculptures with heterogeneous objects in the Dada spirit that he placed and abandoned in the environment, thus inventing the concept of ephemeral sculpture.
Camille's first automatic drawings, created during 1934 – 1935, were followed by the functioning objects, which led to research into texture and the use of non-traditional processes — colored wax and candles, smoke marks — led to his first tachist work, "Cire et bougie" (1935), exhibited at the Surindépendants in 1936. That was a decisive experience, which revealed the artist’s sensitivity, perceptible in the colored passages, the half shades and a feeling of space which led him to the ‘picture.’ A key work, it made Bryen one of the initiators of lyrical abstraction. In 1946, he had an exhibition in Basel, at the Galerie Suzanne Feigel, of his first tachist gouaches in the company of Arp. His "Structures" imaginaires were prefaced by Audiberti.
The following year, Bryen’s drawings were shown at the Galerie du Luxembourg in Paris. In 1947, with Georges Mathieu, he created the Non-Figuration Psychique movement. The two artists also organized an exhibition at the Galerie du Luxembourg, which became historic and in which Atlan, Hartung, Ubac, and Riopelle also took part. That was how Lyrical Abstraction was born. The movement’s second exhibition took place in 1948, at the Galerie Colette Allendy. At that time Bryen made his first prints.
In 1949, Camille had an exhibition at the Galerie des Deux-Isles prefaced by Audiberti, which included his first oil paintings. The following year the gallery showed his prints, and the series of drawings "Cuivres et Plumes." In 1950 Bryen had an exhibition at the Galerie Pierre. He had an increasing number of solo and group exhibitions after that. In 1951 there was a first exhibition of non-figurative painters at the Galerie Nina Dausset, at which Bryen met Mathieu, Hartung, Pollock, Riopelle, Russell, Capogrossi, de Kooning, and Wols. That exhibition was titled "Véhémences confrontées", presented by Michel Tapié. Bryen also participated in Charles Estienne’s Salon d’Octobre in 1953; in the group exhibition "Phases de l’Art contemporain" at the Studio Facchetti in 1954; and in "Individualités d’aujourd’hui" at the Galerie Rive Droite.
Bryen exhibited his recent works in 1952 and 1953 at the Galerie Colette Allendy, in 1954 at the Galerie Pierre, and in 1955 at the Galerie Edouard Loeb. During that period painting replaced his writing of poetry, and he also illustrated a considerable number of books. In 1956 his style became more personal, with a more intense use of color in his watercolors; that had already been noticeable in 1954. That gradual progression from writing to drawing did not, however, cause Bryen to break with his poetic world.
Bryen continued exhibiting in France and abroad. In 1959 his first retrospective was held, titled "Cent œuvres choisies", with a preface by Julien Lanoe, at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nantes. In 1959 Bryen painted "Feu de Bengali", a new phase in the expression of his sensitivity, showing greater sensuality and calm. "Paysage intérieur" was a series in which the yellow, orange, ochre, and white checks became larger while the graphic violence diminished.
In 1960 Bryen had an exhibition of recent paintings at the Galerie Cazenave to coincide with the publication of R.V. Gindertaël’s book. He also participated in a group exhibition titled "Antagonismes" at the Pavillon de Marsan, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, in Paris. In 1961 the Galerie R. Cazenave, showed 24 his drawings. Bryen’s works became increasingly ethereal.
Camille Bryen died in Paris in 1977. The artist is currently represented in numerous museums of modern art, including Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, Centre Georges Pompidou, Grenoble, Le Havre, Dunkirk, Lille, Lyons, Strasbourg, Jerusalem, Lisbon, and Rome.
Untitled #753
Untitled #208
Untitled
Afocalypse
Ocraneil
Nyctalope futurible
Sable de bois
Hépérile
Informel Celestin
Incendix
Untitled #1
Bois aux feu
New York
Untitled #644
Tellurie
Volendam
Eclactique éclaté
Univéronique
Moment Tanné
Détachement
Frottis Bleu
Graphie celeste II
Mesure immatérielle
Fusée diffusée
Camille Bryen adhered to the artistic traditions of Tachisme.
Quotations: “Painting is the profound expression of life. Far from being solely a sensorial experience, it is able to become a magical phenomenon through the ambivalence of the physical and psychical personality.”
The artist joined the Bohemian circle of Nantes in the 20's under the pseudonym "Aristide."
