Self-taught French painter, born in 1902, died on 26 September 1990 in Jaunay-Clan.
Life
Aristide Caillaud spent a childhood as a young peasant in Moulins, in the Deux-Sèvres, which shaped his character. It was during the Second World War, as a prisoner of the Germans, that he discovered his talent: he painted his first works on fragments of wooden crates, alongside a fellow prisoner, the master glassmaker Max Ingrand.
In 1949 he took part in the exhibition L’Art brut organised by Jean Dubuffet at the Galerie René Drouin, then held solo shows in Parisian galleries. André Malraux supported him and had his work shown. Two retrospectives were devoted to him, at the Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris in 1976 and at the Musée Sainte-Croix in Poitiers in 1978. His uncompromising character and his taste for solitude nonetheless kept him away from society life. He died in his small house in Jaunay-Clan, in Poitou, leaving an abundant body of work.
The work
Christian Gendron places his painting between Art Brut and Naive Art: a highly worked body of work born entirely of the imagination. Caillaud said he had no preconceived idea: “the painting makes itself”.
In 2024 the gallery showed a large Sans titre of 1958-1959 (oil on panel, 174 x 114 cm).
Exhibitions and collections
- L’Art brut, Galerie René Drouin, Paris, 1949
- Retrospective, Musée d’Art moderne de la Ville de Paris, 1976
- Retrospective, Musée Sainte-Croix, Poitiers, 1978
- Retrospective, Niort (Hôtel de ville, Pilori, Donjon), 28 June to 24 September 2001, with the book Aristide Caillaud l’enchanteur (Somogy), text by Jacques Lacarrière
- Favourites: Art Brut, Naive Art, Art Singulier, Galerie Les Yeux Fertiles, Paris, 15 March to 13 April 2024