PIERRE GASTAUD 1920/2009

INTERESTING GOUACHE BY GASTAUD DEDICATED TO JEAN MAS. VERY EARLY IN THE ARTIST'S CAREER. PROBABLY EARLY 50S.

Thanks to George Tabaraud, journalist and editor of the newspaper Le Patriote, Pierre had the opportunity to contribute to the magazine, producing drawings that were often satirical about politics and labor in particular. Through him, Pierre met the painters Malaussena, Fillos, Artias, Anjeletti and the greatest of all, Picasso. Often invited to the Catalan master's home, Pierre remembers never going alone: accompanied by a few friends, he wanted them to benefit from Picasso's advice without feeling that he was taking advantage of them.
From Nice, Pierre moved to Antibes, where he met André Verdet, Jacques Prévert, Longobardi, André and Chantal Villers, Arbas et Abidine, Kijno, Paul Revel, Germaine Richier and occasionally Picasso, who came to Antibes at the request of Romuald Dor de la Souchère. Meetings were held daily, ideas were constantly being exchanged and the artists clashed, sometimes violently, over their favorite subject: abstract, informal painting. Between them, they created what could be called the Antibes School. It was at this time that he met his partner of almost fifty years, Elisabeth Adams. In the years that followed, Pierre came into contact with the French and international art scene, and made many important artistic and intellectual encounters, including Albert Feraud, with whom he worked in a large studio in Bagneux; Paul Revel, whose posthumous exhibition he organized; and exhibitions in prestigious venues in France and abroad.
Historically, the notion of the Ecole de Paris refers to artists who arrived in Paris at the beginning of the twentieth century (Modigliani, Chagall, Soutine...) and were called such by the critics. It was a second Paris school, which came to the fore in the second half of the twentieth century. Pierre Gastaud belongs to this generation. He was also an active leader in a "band" of painters that included the inescapable Ladislas Kijno, for example. And it was in the south of France, where Pierre Gastaud often met Picasso, that these groups of painters were active, driven by the struggles of abstract painting and informality. There was even talk of an "Antibes School".

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