Albert Coste (1895-1985), Abstraction, Gouache Signed On The Right, 56, Framed.

Originally from the South of France, born in Aix-en-Provence in 1895, Albert Coste followed a dual education at the Music Conservatory and the Marseille School of Fine Arts, which he joined in 1909. He was preselected for the Prize from Rome in 1914 but the First World War interrupted the competition. Having had two fingers amputated, he was forced to give up a career as a cellist and chose to devote himself fully to painting. He moved to Paris in 1919 where he continued his training in the workshop of Fernand Cormon. The same year, he met Maurice Denis, from whom he received valuable advice at the Atelier d'Art Sacré. In 1941, he collaborated with the master in creating the decor for the Sacré-Coeur de Crête chapel in Thonon-les-Bains. A first personal exhibition was dedicated to him in 1933 in Aix-en-Provence where he had established himself ten years previously (catalogue prefaced by Maurice Denis). He was appointed professor at the city's School of Fine Arts in 1935. Among the orders placed on him for the decoration of public buildings in Aix, he created the ambitious decor for the Faculty of Law of the architect in 1952. Fernand Pouillon. Albert Coste first deals with various subjects in a spirit close to the Nabis, with perfect technical mastery. Different periods have marked his work, which testifies to his permeability to various influences. In 1940, his meeting with the painter Albert Gleizes, a great theoretician and author of Cubism, with whom he became friends, had a profound impact on his work. Albert Coste then questioned his art and embarked on the path of abstraction with the support of Gleizes. Within colorful compositions, he combines flat geometric colors and evocative graphic elements. The work on paper that we are offering could be preparatory to a more accomplished abstract painting. The tangle of geometric shapes drawn by fine pen hatching contributes to the dynamism of the composition.