Biography on Georges Visats

Georges Visat: A Master of Printmaking and Painting

Georges Visat was a well-known artist who specialized in printmaking and drawing. For the majority of his works, he used the engraving process. When he was drawn to the works of Georges Braque as a painter, he became interested in surrealist paintings. Many people around the world have praised him, including art critics like Thomas West.

Early Life and Artistic Development

On January 2, 1910, Georges Visat was born in Corsica, Foce Di Mela. He was raised in Monte Carlo. At the age of fourteen, he received his certificate of education and then began working as an apprentice at Leon Isidore, a printer in Paris. Here, he learned intaglio, which involves engraving intaglio metal using various techniques. Intaglio is a form of print making where an image is incised into the metal surface and ink is poured into the incised area.

Exploration of Artistic Styles

At seventeen, he studied watercolour and drawing at La Grande Chaumiere and the Academy Colarosi. He was a curious young man who developed interest in everything artistic and literally. In 1929, he joined the Ecole Superieure des Arts Decoratifs. In 1932, he was employed at a printing company which specialized in making colored prints of engravings made in etching. Etching is a form of art in which concentrated acid or mortants are used to cut into the unprotected sections of a metal surface in order to create a unique design in intaglio in the metal. It is one of the most utilized method of printmaking by the masters of print.

Challenges and Triumphs

In 1936, he got laid off and went to work in a subway company and went to museums during his free time to learn more about paintings. In 1937, he bought his master’s studio and started his own intaglio printing. It was called Rue Bourbon-le-Chateau and was located in the sixth district of Paris. In 1939, he was captured at the beginning of World War II by the Germans and imprisoned for five years (Ernst, Max, Jean Adhémar, and Marie Frèrebeau, 2005).

Exploring Surrealism

In 1945, he started painting in a very personal style. The style was monochrome and non-figurative. He also puts a break on his artistic aspirations and put more emphasis on studying etching. He encountered his first decision as a printer when he was presented with a collection of engravings Decaris. He realized that the interpretations of paintings according to Georges Braque as used in printing would be perfect for him. Reproducing Braque’s art would give him the freedom to engage in fantasy art which involved expressing oneself freely and using of chance appropriately. This new method of printmaking was the accession of painters such as Fernand Leger, Bazaine, Leger, Joan Miro and Marc Chagall. George Visat was asked to reproduce a painting done by Braque, who is famous for the surrealist style. Surrealism involves painting strange creatures from ordinary objects and illogical scenes as a way of freeing the mind. It was influenced by Dada activities from the First World War. Dadaism was a movement developed by artists as a reaction to World War I. It was formed by artists who did not conform to logic and aestheticism of art. Their work consisted of anti-bourgeois protests and irrationality. The artists expressed how they felt about war, the violence and nationalism. The movement was characterised with demonstrations and publications of literary/art journals. Dadaism is responsible for the development of avant-garde styles such as nouveau réalisme and surrealism.

Collaborations and Recognition

In 1949, Visat met Dorothea Tanning and Max Ernst and became close friends with the two. In 1957, the Foreign Ministry used a recorder to indicate the arriving of Elisabeth II. Visat was requested to carve the menu used in the Chateau de La Celle Saint-Cloud (Zürn, 2007). In 1958, Visat was requested to write Christmas cards addressed to the republic’s presidency. In the following years, he continued to collaborate with the Foreign Affairs Department and the French presidency in the creation of greeting cards and menus.

Establishing a Publishing Company

In 1961, Max Ernst helped Visat start a publishing company to supply limited edition art books bearing the signatures of famous artists such as Dorothea Tanning, Wilfredo Lam, Alberto Giacometti, Francis Bacon, Unica Zurn, Max Ernst, Alanore, Arikha, Alechinsky, and Bellmeas (Tanning, Dorothea, Waddell, & Kuspit, 2002). In 1962, Visat’s publishing company began to support young artists (for example, Boul’ch and Cogollo). He also published prints in avant-garde works such as “Game Frame” by Joel Stein and “chatter idyllic” by Roberto Altmann. In 1969, Visat carried the works of beginners as well as established artists in his gallery, Buoborn Street-le-Chateau.

Mature Artistic Period

From 1972 to 1976, Visat mostly used crayons, ink, pastels, and graphite. In 1977, he went back to oil-based painting and allowed himself to give in to his passions and his secret supernatural thoughts. In 1978, he put all his focus on painting. He also left Paris with his family and settled in Pyrenees-Atlantiques, his wife Suzanne’s native home. At this point, he created mysterious atmospheres, and his work was mainly figurative and expressed his dreams, mood, and wild associations, which are features of works by surrealist artists. The creation of art without conscious thought or capturing unconscious ideas is known as automatism. Surrealism is one of the many forms of automatism. Others are frottage and grattage (scrapping). Frottage was developed in 1925 by Max Ernst and is an automatic method of creating art which involves rubbing a textured surface using drawing material such as a pencil. Ernst’s inspiration came from an old wooden floor whose gran had been accentuated due to many years of scrubbing. He saw strange images on the floor as a result of the graining. He tried to replicate the image by putting papers on the floor then rubbing over the papers using a soft pencil. When he was finished, he saw creatures which resembled birds in a mysterious forest.

Legacy and Honors

In 1987, he was appointed the Officer of the Order of Arts and Letters due to his immense contribution to the French culture through his art (Marion, pp. 100-1005). In 1988, Visat published the “Travel Extra-Terrestrial a Naïve.” The print was the work of his daughter, Armelle, a way of passing down the family tradition. In 1992, Visat painted many pictures in large format using l’art informel style. Throughout his career, he continued to make more paintings in the theme of surrealism and constantly tried to outdo himself as a form of self-improvement. He died on Feb 2, 2001.

Conclusion

Georges Visat was a French painter who was a master in both print work and painting. The most famous features of his paintings are his surrealist ideas. His talent led him to working with the presidency and was honored for his contribution to the French culture.

Works Cited

de Zanger, Marion. “Le paradis artificiel: the Imagination of the Surrealist and ”Schizophrenic”.“ Memory & Oblivion. Springer Netherlands, 2009. 997-1005.

Ernst, Max, Jean Adhémar, and Mariel Frèrebeau. Max Ernst: estampes et livres illustrés. Bibliothèque nationale, 2005.

Tanning, Dorothea, Roberta Waddell, and Donald Burton Kuspit. Dorothea Tanning: hail, delirium!: a catalogue raisonné of the artist’s illustrated books and prints, 1942-1991. New York Public Library, 2002.

Zürn, Unica. ”Oracles et spectacles.“ Paris: Georges Visat (2007).