Claude Venard (French 1913-1999)
"It is certain the works of Claude Venard are not meant for empty souls or tepid hearts" André Salmon, 1962.
Since 1935, Venard's name figured in contemporary art exhibitions, both in France and abroad. Before he first exhibited at the Salon de Mai in Paris, he had contributed to other shows organized by the important group of Forces Nouvelles, along with Roger Humblot, Francis Gruber, André Marchand and Pierre Tal-Coat. He remained faithful to a post-Cubist compositional style, and progressively accentuated the chromatism of his pallet up to reaching the crudest of colours, which he used in very thick forms and sometime applied with a pallet knife.
