MAURICE ESTÈVE 1904-2001

Maurice Estève was born in the French town of Culan (Cher) on May 2th 1904. In 1913 he moved to Paris with his parents, where he soon began his education as an artist. During his visits to the Louvre in the 1920?s, Estève was particularly impressed by the painters Jean Fouquet and Paolo Uccello. Among the modern artists, Paul Cézanne had the greatest influence on Estève.
Maurice Estève was largely self-educated, having only attended the free studio of the Académie Colarossi in 1924, where he tried to constructively implement his motifs according to Georges Braque and Fernand Léger?s model, thus creating a kind of Cubist Fauvism. Estève extensive work was not limited to the pictorial genre. He was also active in collage, textile design and murals.
Estève avoided the extraverted circles of Avant-garde but took part in the artist's core who brought the breakthrough of the École de Paris after 1945. Maurice Estève participated in the Venice Biennale in 1954. His work, just like the one of his colleagues Riopelle and Bazaine, established a new pictorial language : Lyrical abstractions aimed to depict forms and colors with an almost poetic attitude. His works are now in many famous museums and collections around the world.
Maurice Estève died on June 29th 2001 at the age of 97 in his hometown of Culan.