11 - Georges Mathieu (French, 1921-2012)

Georges Mathieu (French, 1921-2012) Digression - 1970 Oil on canvas, 195 x 97 cm Signed and dated lower right Titled on the stretcher Provenance: Galerie Veranneman, Brussels (1971) The Robert and Suzanne Pannier Collection, Bruges Published: Henri Van Lier, Mathieu [exhibition catalog], Galerie Veranneman,Brussels, 1971, cat.5 Exhibited: Galerie Veranneman, Brussels, Georges Mathieu, 14 January - 6 February 1971, cat.5 With a photocertificate by the artist, dated 3 January 1987. An attestation of the "Archives by Jean-Marie Cusinberche on Georges Mathieu" will be provided to the buyer. Georges Mathieu transformed the act of painting into an event. Dispensing with preparatory drawing, he worked directly from the tube onto the canvas, allowing rapid, instinctive gestures to unfold in a single sustained sequence. This emphasis on spontaneity did not imply the absence of control； rather, it reflected a deeply cultivated command of rhythm, movement and balance through which the compositional order emerged in the very act of painting. Painted in 1970, Digression belongs to a moment in which Mathieu increasingly concentrated his compositions around a central structure set against expansive monochrome grounds. Here, a luminous white field provides neither backdrop nor emptiness, but a space in which the painted gesture acquires its full presence. A strongly articulated black framework anchors the composition. Vivid passages of red and white break away from this central structure, while restrained accents of gold introduce moments of chromatic intensity. The painting retains the immediacy that defines Mathieu, where instinctive execution and compositional equilibrium coexist within a single gesture. Digression and the following lot were exhibited at Galerie Veranneman in Brussels on the occasion of Georges Mathieu’s solo exhibition, inaugurated on 14 January 1971. This event took place within a particularly rich cultural context: two days earlier, on 12 January, at the invitation of Baron Van Ypersele, Mathieu delivered an important lecture at the Cercle des Nations entitled La Renaissance de demain, devoted to the role and mission of the artist in society. Broadcast by Belgian Radio-Television and published in the weekly L’Éventail, the lecture attracted a prestigious audience of princes, ministers, ambassadors and artists, testifying to the intellectual and cultural prominence surrounding the opening of his Brussels exhibition.