Contemporary Artists | Period Artists (A-H) | Period Artists (H-Z)
André Vignoles
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L'Etang de Giverny André Vignoles feels that the basic function of painting is the effective representation of nature, but that many artists have confused the means of painting for its end. It is time to come back to the painting of pictures, to the expression of sentiment and mystery, to the sharing of the artist’s personal vision.
André Vignoles has a very distinguished painting style. His richly colorful still life and landscape subjects demonstrate a truly creative imagination and an extraordinary craftsmanship. Vignoles was born at Clairac in the southwest part of France on August 5, 1920. Although his formal education was in the classics, he was attracted to drawing at an early age. He began to paint with a student of Flandrin, one of the first Fauves, who had studied in the atelier of Gustave Moreau. As he continued his study of painting, Vignoles was attracted by the art of Cézanne, Van Gogh and the Primitives of the 15th Century. Then he discovered modern art and admired the work of Picasso so much that he went through a Cubist phase in his painting from 1943 to 1945.
In 1945, Vignoles married and went to live in Nice but shortly moved to Vallauris, where he worked in ceramics to earn his living, though his spare time was devoted completely to painting. It was at this time, that Vignoles met Pierre Bonnard who advised and encouraged the young artist. Acting on Bonnard’s strong recommendation, Vignoles moved to Paris in 1946. There he continued to decorate ceramics to earn his living, but he also continued to paint. The Paris artistic community of the late 1940’s leaned strongly toward Cubism and abstraction, but despite his admiration for Picasso, and the fact that he himself had gone through a brief Cubist phase, Vignoles was repelled by a type of art he felt had become too intellectual, too decorative. He was convinced that art must return to nature, a conviction reinforced by his numerous visits to the Louvre, which had just reopened after the war. There he discovered Louis Le Nain, Chardin, Watteau, Poussin and El Greco. He sketched at l’Académie Libre de la Grande Chaumière and at the Louvre as well as working alone, concentrating on patient study of nature, on perfecting his skill in drawing, on mastering the use of color.
Two years after he moved to Paris, Vignoles began to exhibit at the Salon d’Automne. In 1949, he won an honorable mention in the competition for the first Hallmark Prize. In 1950, he became a member of the Salon des Indépendants. He exhibited in the Salon des Jeunes Peintres in 1951, whose Committee he was later elected a member. In 1952, the French State made its first purchase of one of his paintings; in succeeding years others were purchased both by the French Government and by the City of Paris.
Having studied the paintings of El Greco in the Louvre, Vignoles wanted to visit Spain. He was fortunate enough to win a traveling scholarship from the French Government which allowed him to make several trips to Spain. There he gained an even greater appreciation of El Greco and great inspiration studying so many of this master’s fine works. In the Prado Museum during his stay in Madrid, and in Avila and Toledo, where he actually worked in the el Greco House, Vignoles felt very close to the spirit and superb craftsmanship of his idol. However, in spite of the fact that he has done several landscapes of Toledo, Vignoles’ style has no obvious elements reminiscent of El Greco.
Vignoles won the Prix de la Cadière d’Azur in 1954. In 1955, he presented his first one-man show in Paris, initiating a cycle of such exhibitions not only in Paris, but also in London and New York. He combined one-man shows with participation in many group exhibitions, mainly in Paris but also in London.
Today Vignoles continues to study form and color harmony in still lifes and landscapes animated by a lyrical feeling for nature and in paintings with figures caught in the movement of contemporary life. The following list of the French Salons in which André Vignoles exhibits indicates the place he occupies among the outstanding French contemporary painters:
