Roger
Bissière
Roger Bissière, French painter of the Nouvelle École de Paris, is a representative of the non-figurative painting from the 1950s.
He studied at the Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux before moving to Paris in 1910. Initially influenced by Fauvism, he gradually developed an abstract style in the 1930s. Bissière contributes to the founding of the magazine Abstraction Creation, which promoted this current which was then at the heart of aesthetic debates. He draws his inspiration from Pablo Picasso, sharing a certain interest in lyrical abstraction with Alfred Manessier, while building friendships with André Lhote and Nicolas de Staël.
In the early 1940s, his style was simplified, the contours of the bodies being reduced to a few lines. From 1958, he started creating stained glass windows for Saint-Étienne Cathedral in Metz. This work evokes the creation of humanity, on the fourth day, when two luminaries appear in the sky to separate day and night. In 1962, he received the Special Honorary Mention at the Venice Biennale.
Since his death in 1964, numerous exhibitions have paid tribute to the artist's work, testifying to his importance in the history of abstract art in France. In 1994, the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris organized a retrospective bringing together more than 100 works by Bissière.
