Albert AYME
Albert AYME painter
1920 - 2012
Born in July 1920 in Saint Geniès des Mourgues (South of France), he died on June 19th, 2012. He used to live between Paris and Charente-Maritime (South West).
He started painting in the fifties, and in order to devote himself to his art and the work he had to create, he resigned from his job as an engineer for the Ministry of Agriculture in Paris.
Albert Ayme is both abstract painter and a theorist.
He founded his own pictorial language using a geometrical vocabulary from 1966 and developed a musical technique of painting by inventing his rules for colour with the method “braid three primary colours” and revisited the main universal themes : fugue, chromaticism, mise en abyme (colour within colour), canon, counterpoint, etc... The musical vocabulary can also be found in the titles of his works. In 1962, he invents the concept of “Subtractive relief” and the “Toile libre” (canvas not stretched on frame).
He was also commissioned by institutions to realise works in architecture : a modular sculpture in La Seyne-sur-Mer, three monumental pyramids for Lille University, the cinema Publicis Matignon on the Champs-Elysées in Paris (all glass made) and which was a co-creation with his son Giney Ayme ...
His work often received the acknowledgement of eminent thinkers, writers and poets, philosophers, 20th century historians and musicians, who sometimes became his friends : Francis Ponge, Giorgio Morandi, Roland Barthes, Philippe Sollers, Michel Butor, Hervé Castanet, Roger Laporte, Jacques Henric, Frédéric-Jacques Temple, Jean-François Lyotard, Catherine Millet, Dora Vallier, Jean Petitot, Jean-Yves Bosseur, Michel Giroud ...
The art market and art collectors kept away from the artist who disappeared in 2012 without having any art quote. He was rarely invited to participate in big exhibitions presenting themes he actively took part in for years: white monochrome, transparency, the relationships between painting & music, colour, la “Toile libre”...
The large Retrospective of thirty years of creation, 1962 -1992, in the National School of Fine Arts in Paris revealed for the first time the importance of his work.
Albert AYME published many books, written for each phases of his creation (Traversières Edition, Paris).
Traduction : Naik M'SILI
Unless otherwise stated, the works presented belong to Giney AYME private collection
(Since Albert AYME death in 2012, the rights of exploitation of his work are subject of a joint ownership agreement by his legal successors:
Martine AYME Saillard, and his twin sons Christian et Giney AYME )