Pierre Molinier

MOLINIER, Pierre (Agen, France 1900 - Bordeaux, France 1976)

French Surrealist painter and photographer

BIOGRAPHY

1900 Pierre Molinier was born on 13 April 1900 (Good Friday) in Agen (France). His father was a house painter and decorator specialized in marble and wood imitation; his mother was a dressmaker and his aunt an ironer. During his childhood, he was raised surrounded by women. He spent his school years with the Brothers of the Agen Ecoles chrétiennes, and not at all, as he pretended, with the Jesuits.

1913 He starts working with his father as an apprentice painter and takes evening courses at the Agen Municipal School of Drawing

1918 Having been in love with his sister for a long time, he takes a photograph of her on her deathbed. Around that date, he settles down in Bordeaux, Place de la Bourse, in the Saint-Pierre Quarter.

1919 He sets up his own business, as a house painter.

1920 He does his military service from 1920 to 1922, then stays in Paris where he visits museums frequently

1923 He moves to 5 rue du Parlement-Saint-Pierre, still in the Bordeaux Old Quarter.

1927 First exhibition of his paintings.Until 1951, every year he shows several paintings (figurative or fauve landscapes and portraits) in the Bordeaux Salons.

1928 He exhibits a painting in Paris, at the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts, and founds the Société des Artistes Indépendants Bordelais together with several other painters.

1931 He moves in the apartment where he will stay for good, at 7 rue des Faussets, in the Bordeaux Old Quarter

1940 He is mobilized as a male nurse, taken prisoner, then demobilized. He settles down in the Bordeaux countryside with his family. Giving up figuratism, he makes his first abstract painting Satin blanc.

1944 His father commits suicide, by taking medicine.

1946 Following the presumed visit of the Dalai Lama envoys, who asked him to reproduce mandalas, his inspiration changes into esoterism (this visit was dated, vaguely, around 1936 by Molinier ; considering the evolution of his paintings, 1946 would be much more likely.

1948 First painting characteristic of his erotic period (Les amants à la fleur).