Toulouse. Renée Aspe, unclassifiable artist, free electron and painter in the pink city

In Toulouse, when you stroll through the Saint-Georges district And that we lift our noses in the sky, we notice a street name and a bronze bust with destiny as unknown as it is singular. More than fifty years after her disappearance, Renée Aspe’s name and face almost resonate as an enigma in the Toulouse cultural landscape.

Free electron of painting

If some specialists classify it in “Painters of poetic reality”others refer it to the side of “Colorful expressionists”. Impossible to decide as it turns out to be a free electron of painting from the 1940s and 1960s.

Undocile of nature, she does not accept comparison with no other artist and prefers to trust her only intuition.

Student of Lespinasse and Lhote

This daughter of the Toulouse petty bourgeoisie was born on December 3, 1922. Henri, the father, director of a real estate agency and Viviane, mother at a household, raise her alongside their son Pierre with benevolence and pride. They even go so far as to register it In the most beautiful baby competition.

Growing up, she leaves the image of a child with a strong character, far from the oppressive walls of the school. Not knowing what to do, his mother ended up registering him at the City’s School of Fine Arts. It is passionate and follows passionate the technique of the black line taught by Raymond Espinasseone of the great figures of the Toulouse school.

After three years of study, she went to Paris to perfect her knowledge with Jean Souverbie and André Lhote. It is there that she really learns to compose a painting, assimilating the techniques of fauvism and cubism.

The painter and scenographer Yves Bonnat praises his style when he discovered his paintings exhibited in the spring of 1944 at the Paris Arc-en-Ciel gallery. “She is like her native sun, all fire, all flame and such is also her painting, explosion of youth and enthusiasm”.

A great traveler

In 1951, she went for the first time in Spain, from Costa Brava to Andalusia. It paints with real presence the climate and life of these regions, with gouache, ink in China or in oil. Iberian newspapers speak abundantly about her clashes in “La Sala Canada” in Barcelona and at the eleven living room in Madrid.

In 1963, she took advantage of one of her many journeys in the peninsula to attend the shooting of Largest circus in the world d’Henry Hathaway. John Wayne Who plays the main role, agrees to pose with her children for her! But this bulimic designer, always eager for new experiences and lands (goes to the Maghreb and Mexico), feels the need to blow, between two suitcases and two exhibitions. His small house in Mont Saint-Clair in Sète becomes his haven of peace. While she always swarms as many projects, her palette turns black. Achievement of breast cancer, she died suddenly on September 17, 1969, at only 46 years old.

Mathieu Arnal

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