Cover: L’editeur Eugène Figuière – Albert Gleizes 1913

Musée des Beaux Arts - Lyon 

Albert Gleizes 

Albert Gleizes was born in Paris in 1881 and trained as a tracer in his father's firm. In 1901 he exhibited early landscape paintings in an Impressionist style at the Société Nationale's exhibitions. As a co-founder of the "Salon d'Automne" and member of the "Salon des Indépendants" he had close contact to the artistic avant-garde.

Influenced by Henri Le Fauconnier and Jean Metzinger he turned towards a geometrically simplified style in 1908-09 and produced the so-called "Paysages classiques". He joined the Cubist circle around Robert Delaunay in 1910. Soon he discovered his own pictorial language which dismantles the objects and re-organises them rhythmically - as in Futurism. He wrote the book "Du Cubisme" together with Metzinger in 1912.

Gleizes' theoretical discussions were carried on in the group "La Section d'Or", which was founded by Jacques Villon in1912.  His ideas of creating a dynamic Cubism inspired other painters such as Le Fauconnier, Roger de Fresnaye and Fernand Léger.

In 1914 he was drafted to military service and travelled until 1919 to the USA, Canada, Cuba, the Bermudas and to Spain. In 1939 Gleizes moved to Saint-Remy-de Provence and produced sacral murals, etchings to Pascal's "Pênsées", several art theoretical essays and in 1952 the fresco for the chapel "Les Fontaines" in Chantilly. In 1947 a large retrospective of his work was shown in Lyon. He died in the Saint Remy in 1953.