Simon de Cardaillac

1932-2019

Simon de Cardaillac (1932-2019) was a French artist whose career was marked by reserve and depth, and was forged away from the public eye. He was born in Nice, and grew up within an artistic circle closely linked to Jeannine Guillou and Nicolas de Staël, which nourished his artistic vision from an early age. He was a close friend of Antoine Tudal, with whom he shared formative experiences, and he learned to paint under the watchful eye of major artists, such as Braque and de Staël.

He settled in Paris after studying architecture, visited museums and studios, and, as early as 1956, exhibited alongside Alechinsky, Hartung and Sonia Delaunay. Despite growing interest from collectors, particularly American ones, in his work, he resisted the lure of the art market, preferring a free and disciplined approach to his research.

He was influenced by Nietzsche's thinking, seeing art as an existential response and an act of self-expression. In his studio in Sèvres, he created a dense and singular body of work made from raw materials, collages and everyday objects. He explored the language of urban signage, numbers and letters, and questioned the visual codes of our contemporary world.

As assistant to Hans Hartung and Anna-Eva Bergman, he remained true to their friendship without ever trying to benefit from it financially. As a visual poet, he blended lyrical abstraction, engraving, photography and a critique of consumerism. He resisted the commercial temptations, and instead pursued a rigorous, coherent and profoundly humanist career. Today, his work is being deservedly rediscovered.