Lucien Coutaud, The Aeroplane, 1937, Gouache

Lucien Coutaud (1904-1977)
The Airplane, 1937
Gouache on cardboard
Titled and dated on the reverse
24.5 x 47 cm

Lucien Coutaud (1904-1977)
Coutaud entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Nîmes in 1920 and left for Paris four years later. In 1925, he was admitted to the École des Arts Décoratifs and frequented the independent art academies of Montparnasse. He visited the Louvre Museum and galleries exhibiting Max Ernst, De Chirico, and Paul Klee. In 1927, Charles Dullin commissioned him to design the sets and costumes for Aristophanes' play, The Birds. In 1931, he held his first exhibition of paintings in Paris. He worked almost exclusively in gouache, painting numerous bouquets of flowers and large esoteric compositions, and created several theater sets.

In 1937, Coutaud executed a large mural, The Myth of Proserpine, for the Palais de la Découverte, which was destroyed in August 1944. He illustrated several poetry collections and contributed to the booklet published for the performances of Ubu Enchaîné, directed by Sylvain Itkine. Mobilized in September, he was discharged in early December and began acquainting with Paul Eluard. In 1940, he designed his first tapestry cartoon, Chamber Music, for the Compagnie des Arts Français, directed by Jacques Adnet, and in 1943, created the sets and costumes for Paul Claudel's The Satin Slipper, directed by Jean-Louis Barrault at the Comédie-Française.

Coutaud was a founding member of the Salon de Mai, alongside Jacques Despierre, whose first edition took place in 1945, and regularly participated in the Salon d’Automne. He continued to work on tapestries and devoted himself intensively to engraving and set design for the theater.

In 1951, he completed the illustrations for Arthur Rimbaud's A Season in Hell and participated in numerous group exhibitions in Tokyo, London, Buenos Aires, and São Paulo. The Galerie Rive Gauche held a retrospective of his work, and in 1953, another retrospective was dedicated to him at the Kamakura Museum of Modern Art in Japan. The following year, he participated in numerous exhibitions and presented nine paintings in the Fantastic Art section of the Venice Biennale. In 1955, he designed sets and costumes for Paul Claudel's *Protée*, exhibited at the Sagittarius Gallery in New York, and created the sets and costumes for Charles Péguy's *Jeanne d'Arc* at the Comédie-Française. His *Paysage taurin*, exhibited at the 1956 Salon de Mai, was acquired by the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris.

In 1962, he had a solo exhibition at the Galerie André Weil and a retrospective at the Musée Galliera. In 1963, he traveled to Japan where he exhibited at the Nichido Gallery in Tokyo. He was appointed Professor and Head of the Etching Workshop at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, a position he held until 1975.
In 1967, he received the Grand Prix de Peinture de la Ville de Paris, followed in 1971 by the Grand Prix de l'Académie des Beaux-Arts. His works are held in the collections of the Centre Pompidou, the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nîmes and Lyon, the Rio de Janeiro Museum of Modern Art, and the Ohara Museum of Art, among others.

Ref: TWG0BP3WF0