Georges Autard

Born in 1951, this self-taught artist now established in Marseille was not meant to embrace a painter career, which began in 1975. Despite, his former mathematician life insinuates itself in his art. In fact, Georges Autard has preserved a signs and symbols iconography. As a gestural painter, he can be part of abstract expressionism. He is near to the graffiti, as suggest his narrative expression and the fluorescent shock of his slogans. His paintings also reflect a stimulus spirituality.

Georges Autard multiplies his materials. From his works emanate an emergency and a need which echo Basquiat, as a strong gesture expression. With those vitality, spirituality and black background, Georges Autard invites us in a street-art look like universe, in which he adds several references. Along the years, his creation made by daily images – glasses, bikes, numbers, or scriptures – took the road of reflexion, and reshapes his art.In the 1990s, he explored the high points of Tibetan and Zen Buddhism, combining this spiritual dimension with his emblematic artistic and musical references from the 20th century: Picasso, Beuys, Bob Dylan or even the Dalai Lama. Almost ritualistic in nature, his multiple references are anchored in his work process, from which he extracts his statements.

Works by Georges Autard are part of some French public collections (National Contemporary Art Fund of Paris, Modern and Contemporary Art Museum of Nice, Cantini Museum, Contemporary Art Museum
of Marseille, and many regional contemporary art funds), international public collections (Contemporary Art Museum of Montreal, Canada, Ludwig Museum of Cologne, Germany, France Institute of Naples, Italy), as well as many privates’ collections. In 2019, under the scientific curatorship of Amélie Adamo, the Musée de l’Abbaye Sainte-Croix (Les Sables d’Olonne) chose the artist for the retrospective exhibition Aux sources des années 1980 (Eighties & Echoes). In 2023, curators Gabrielle Bryers and Marc Ragouilliaux devote a solo exhibition to the artist in Marseille, Paradise Now/Mystik Esthetik/Kommando. The same year, Galerie Ars Longa invited him to dialog with Violaine Desportes for the duo show Variations Urbaines. In February 2025, the gallery celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of his career with a retrospective exhibition entitled Paradise Now, featuring iconic pieces from his career as well as his most recent creations.