Olivier Debré

[1] It was following a visit to Pablo Picasso’s studio in 1941 that Olivier Debré, an honoured artist and member of the French Academy, moved from figurative painting to abstraction, and the influence of André Lanskoy that awakened his marked fondness for colour.

A painter of immense spaces, Olivier Debré’s work has taken shape in large scale stage sets: curtains for the Comédie Française (1987), for the Hong Kong Opera (1989) requested by the foundation Louis Vuitton, and for the new Shanghai Opera House.

Olivier Debré The painter's work has also been the subject of a fantastic contemporary ballet: Signes directed by the choreographer Carolyn Carlson.

The planned Fondation Olivier Debré is due to open on the site of the Tours art school.

Retrospective, History Museum, Beijing/ Modern Art Museum, Hong-Kong, 1998 Olivier Debré, œuvres de la dation, Centre Pompidou, Paris 25/06/2003-15/09/2003 Olivier Debré, un abstrait lyrique, retrospective of the artist, Musée d’Ixelles (Belgium) 24/02/2011-15/05/2011 Les Sujets de l’abstraction, Peinture non-figurative de la Seconde École de Paris (1946-1962), Fondation Gandur pour l’Art, Musée Rath, Geneva, 06/05/2011-14/08/2011 Signes, ballet directed by the choreographer Carolyn Carlson, with music by René Aubry; stage sets and costumes by Olivier Debré, Opéra Bastille in Paris, July 2013 Olivier Debré, Fervent Abstraction, Estorick Collection, London, 30/06/2021-26/09/2021[2]