Louis Cane
Painter
Louis Cane, born December 13, 1943 in Beaulieu-sur-Mer (Alpes-Maritimes) and died November 3, 2024 in Paris, was a contemporary French painter and sculptor. A member of the Supports/Surfaces group at the start of his career, his work has always oscillated between abstraction and figuration, reinterpreting the great works of art history.
In 1961, Louis Cane entered the École nationale des arts décoratifs in Nice, then studied for two years at the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs in Paris, from which he graduated in 1964 in the “Mural painting and frescoes” section.
In 1967-1968, along with Arman, Benjamin Vautier, Noël Dolla and Patrick Saytour, he exhibited “LOUIS CANE ARTISTE PEINTRE” (LOUIS CANE, PAINTER) at the Hall des Remises en question, a new venue opened by Ben in Nice. Together with Papiers collés (painted paper cut into thin strips and glued back onto a sheet of kraft paper), the stamps are the artist’s first works.
For the first group show of the Supports/Surfaces group, Claude Viallat refused to allow Louis Cane to take part, who then distributed a theoretical text in the exhibition, disputing the coherence of the group, a tract that inaugurated a series of polemics and protests.
The magazine Peinture, cahiers théoriques, of which Louis Cane was one of the founders, appeared in 1971, at the same time as the divergences within the Supports/Surfaces group were growing. That same year, he held his first solo exhibitions in Paris (Galerie Daniel Templon and Galerie Yvon Lambert) and took part in the second and third exhibitions of the Supports/Surfaces group at the Théâtre de la Cité internationale in Paris in April, then in June at the Théâtre de Nice.
Until 1975, Louis Cane continued his abstract series: Toiles découpées (cut-out canvases) from 1970, unframed canvases spread out on the floor, then spray-painted and folded in half, finally cut-out and stapled directly to the wall, followed by Toiles au sol (floor canvases) from 1972, a reflection on space in painting and chromaticism, and finally the Sol/Mur series from 1974-1975, black canvases saturated with spray-painted color.
Between 1973 and 1978, he traveled extensively in Italy, where he was influenced by Raphael’s frescoes in the Vatican, and then studied classical painting, particularly that of Cimabue and Giotto.
In 1975 and 1976, he began to practice semi-abstract painting: his first drawings on the Meninas and his first canvases painted with arches, with the appearance of the angel. In 1977, he took part in the exhibition “L’avant-garde 1960-1976: trois villes, trois collections” (Marseille, Grenoble, Saint-Étienne and Centre Georges-Pompidou in Paris), which featured most of the artists of the Supports/Surfaces movement.
From abstract painting to a definitive return to figuration, in 1978 Louis Cane reflected on the history of pictorial forms and embarked on an exacerbated figuration of emblematic figures: nude, quartered women, childbirths, Annunciations, lunches on the grass… Cane has never hidden his sources: Picasso, Manet, Monet, Goya, Rembrandt, Matisse, Frank Stella, Jackson Pollock, and finally de Kooning.
Sculpture, which he began in 1978, was a familiar discipline for him from his apprenticeship years. His statues, almost exclusively female, revive the traditional practice of modelling, and the forms are sometimes burlesque, sometimes pathetic, with a baroque expressionism. Examples include the Meninas series (inspired by Velasquez, among others), and Desmoiselles on a swing.
For the construction of the new Evry cathedral, he designed a modern, cubic tabernacle. It is covered on five sides with mosaics inspired by those of the early Church. The decorative themes are the symbols used by early Christians: dove, grape, bread, fish.
Louis Cane, who studied at the Arts Décoratifs, is also a furniture designer, this activity representing an important part of his artistic creation from the 1990s onwards.
Married since the 1970s to Nicole Cane, an animal sculptor[3], he died in Paris on November 3, 2024 at the age of 80.
