Georges MATHIEU (1921-2012) - Lot 172

Georges MATHIEU (1921-2012) Tribute to Raban Maur, 1956 Oil on canvas Signed and dated 56 lower left 97 x 162 cm (Small missing parts) Provenance : - Galerie Rive Droite, Paris - Sale Espace Cardin, Paris, April 08, 1973, N°82 - Christie's sale, Rome, May 7, 1985, N°117 - Morelli Collection, Milan - Nuova Brerarte sale, Milan, May 22 1989, N° 41. - Ferrario Collection, Milan -Private collection, Milan - Galerie Najuma, Marseille Exhibition : - Georges Mathieu, galerie Grange, Lyon March 28 - April 25, 1958 Bibliography: - Mathieu by François Mathey, Fratelli Fabbri Editori, Milan, 1969 reproduced under N°83 (under the title Rhaban Maur) Created in 1956, Hommage à Raban Maur is one of a series of works in which Georges Mathieu combines abstract calligraphy with medieval references. The painting illustrates his interest in the intellectual figures of the Middle Ages, through a gestural painting with a pared-down yet meaningful vocabulary. Raban Maur (c. 780-856), abbot of Fulda and later archbishop of Mainz, was an emblematic figure of the Carolingian Renaissance. A humanist before his time, encyclopedist and theologian, he embodied the synthesis of ancient knowledge and Christian faith that fascinated Mathieu. The choice of this patronymic is not insignificant: through it, the artist celebrates not a dogma, but an era of intellectual fervor, mystical rigor and spiritual renewal. In Hommage à Raban Maur, the composition is centered, taut between flamboyant verticals and lateral spurts that evoke both the spiritual elevation and fighting energy of illuminated manuscripts. The bright yellow, almost incised into the black material, evokes medieval lettering as much as the flashes of an inner battle. Here, Mathieu's gesture is both invocation and commemoration: it's less a question of representing than of resurrecting - a thought, an era, an intensity. Georges Mathieu's taste for the Middle Ages is neither anecdotal nor decorative. It's a transfigured, essential Middle Ages, which he perceives as a moment of radical truth, of mystical verticality, of burning relationships between power, faith and beauty. faith and beauty. In his paintings from this decade, he successively conjures up the figures of Philippe Auguste, Roncesvalles and Frédégonde - all spirits captured in the fire of the line. With Hommage à Raban Maur, Mathieu goes beyond abstract formalism to rediscover a memory embodied in gesture. A living memory, whose flame illuminates the dense shadow of the background.