André Cottavoz “reflections”

André Cottavoz (1922-2012) - "reflets" - Oil on canvas - format 74 x 65 mm - signed lower right - signed, dated 1960 and titled on the back - stamp of the Pananti gallery in Florence - gilded American box of origin to be restored - André Cottavoz was born on July 22, 1922 in Saint-Marcellin in Isère. His parents work in the hat industry and the family lives in Romans. As a teenager, he was captivated by a work by Van Gogh and, encouraged by his watercolorist mother, he undertook his first creation. Painting and sculpting matter using a knife, and bringing light out of it… this is now his reason for living. His love of art and his unique practice of relief became his main motivation. At the age of 17 he left for Lyon and enrolled in fine arts but his enthusiasm was quickly stopped by the war and he was deported to Austria in 1942 where he carried out, with his friend Paul-Philibert Charrin, his compulsory labor service. (STO). After exhausting days of work in an arms factory, the practice of painting, done with the means at hand on old cardboard, helps him to cope with these difficult living conditions. On his return from Austria, traumatized by these years of captivity, he did not give up painting and returned to the School of Fine Arts in Lyon. A new student life then begins... Made of meetings with young artists, all passionate painters, friendships take shape,... Jean Fusaro, Jacques Truphémus, André Lauran, Georges Adilon, all students or fans of Antoine Chartres. All are driven by the same frenzy... Concerned about rigor, they refuse banality and assume their choice. Their youth gives them the impetus necessary to accomplish their goals. During an exhibition in 1948 at the chapel of the Ampère high school in Lyon where there were fourteen of them exhibiting, André and his friends gave birth to a new movement: Sanzism... without ism as opposed to cubism, realism, pointillism, impressionism and other Fauvism… expression simply invented by Charrin to attract the attention of visitors… However, it is difficult for them to make a living from their passion and, hoping to emerge from the shadows, They decide to “go up” to Paris. The support of the School of Paris will allow them to participate in a number of trade fairs, exhibitions and competitions. We find them at the Salon d'Automne, at the Tuileries, Salon des Jeunes Painters... André Cottavoz won the Fénéon Prize in 1953, which allowed him to become known to the general public and contribute to his notoriety abroad. His talent is finally recognized! He then left the capital for the South of France. Seduced and conquered by the Mediterranean, its light and its colors which inspire him and which he knows how to sublimate so well in his works, he opened a workshop in Vallauris. There he discovered ceramics, and cooperated with Roger Collet (without ever forgetting that he worked for Picasso's ceramics to earn a living.) He explored other techniques in parallel, notably engraving and lithography. A collaboration began with several galleries, notably with Tamenaga who, taking great interest in his works, took him under contract for his galleries in Japan. Success was assured since he created a painting “View of Mount Fujiyama” measuring five by five meters. The works of André Cottavoz are presented in numerous museums or exhibitions, in France or abroad and make him a recognized artist. André Cottavoz left us on July 8, 2012 in Vallauris.