Albert Bitran - Lirical Abstraction

 

 "Born in Instanbul, Albert Bitran studied at the Collège Saint-Michel there where he passed the French and Turkish Baccalauréats. At the age of 17, he went to Paris to study architecture but abandoned this quickly to concentrate on painting.
At the time of his first solo exhibition of his geometric works, in 1951 at the Galerie Arnaud, a meeting place for the avant-garde of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, he was only twenty years old. He participated in many events, including the first exhibition of abstract art in Caracas and “Divergences” in Paris at the Théâtre de Babylone. In 1954, he exhibited at the Galerie Denise René, with a preface by Henri-Pierre Roché who gave him access to his prestigious collection and rented him a room on the Boulevard Arago where he painted.
However, leaving geometric abstraction, Bitran turned towards an intellectual form of painting which he would continue to the end of his life. He spent long periods of time in the south of France and his first studies are related to landscape, a theme he developed until Naissance d’un Paysage, a large collage of 1956 that was included in the exhibition “L’Envolée Lyrique3” at the Musée du Luxembourg in 2006."(galerie-trocmez.fr)

 

 

 

Albert Bitran - Lyrical Abstraction

Albert Bitran (1931 in Istanbul, Turkey – 9 November 2018 in Paris, France) was a French painter, engraver and sculptor. Albert Bitran was born in 1931, in a Jewish Sephardic family, in Istanbul, Turkey. After his studies at the French Collège Saint Michel, having both diplomas in French and Turkish, he is admitted in the Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture, in Paris.
"As a young man of 20, he has his first solo exhibition at the prestigious Galerie Arnaud, where he exhibits his geometrically inspired paintings. In 1954 he exhibits at Galerie Denise René, where he meets writer and patron Henri-Pierre Rochée, who writes the preface for the catalogue. Rochée is deeply engaged in the artistic avant-garde, and quickly takes the young artist under his wing.
By the end of the 1950s Bitran begins to experiment with a more liberated, expressive style, where his art is characterised by the interaction between linear shapes. The works are inspired by lyrical prize and contains architectural elements. He exhibits several times at Galerie Ariel, who’s prominent owner Jean Pollack shows a great interest in abstract painting.Bitran becomes a French citizen in 1958, and creates a printing workshop in Rigny-le-Ferron. Through this he begins to work with various graphic techniques, in particular etching and lithography. Bitran has his first exhibit with Galerie Birch in 1961. This is Bitran’s first show in Scandinavia, of which there are numerous in the following years; 1963, 1964, 1965, 1967, 1974, 1979 and 1983.
Today, his work is represented at leading galleries and museums worldwide."(galeriebirch.com)