A. (AUGUSTE) HERBIN

Biography

A. (AUGUSTE) HERBIN
1882 Quéivy (France) - 1960 Parijs (France)

Auguste Herbin was born on April 29, 1882 in Quiévy, Northern France. He studied from 1898 at the art academy in Lille and left for Paris in 1901. Around 1909 he came into contact with Juan Gris (1887-1927). Partly because of him, Herbin also started working in a cubist style. He stylized landscapes and still lifes with intersecting surfaces. Auguste Herbin also participated in the avant-garde exhibitions in Germany and the influential 1913 Armory Show in New York. During World War I, Auguste Herbin painted camouflages for the French armed forces. He continued to work in an abstract style until the 1920s. Herbin then returned to a figurative approach for a short time, before returning to abstract work. In 1931, Auguste Herbin founded the Abstraction-Création group in Paris. In 1940 he came up with the creation of his 'plastic alphabet'. Each letter was given a color, shape and a musical chord. He laid down this theory in the book 'l'Art non figuratif-non objectif', published in 1949. In 1953 he became paralyzed on one side, so that he could only draw and paint with his left hand. His great-niece Geneviève Claisse became his assistant. Auguste Herbin died on January 31, 1960 at the age of 77 in Paris. Geneviève Claisse (1935-2018) later became known for geometric abstract works.