Pierre Doutreleau, is a visionary French painter whose figurative and narrative work transcends the boundaries of conventional expression. With a career spanning over sixty decades, Doutreleau has consistently pushed the limits of creativity, exploring themes of identity, nature, and the human experience through a variety of mediums, including oil, pastels, and lithographies. His unique approach and innovative techniques have earned him a distinguished place in the contemporary art world.
Doutreleau, as a perfect initiate, practices a wise balance between pleasure and drama to build his work. The image conveyed by Doutreleau is polymorphic: it seems still and yet it lives, moves, and vibrates. Born from movement, it does not seek to impose itself as a discourse on things but simply to emit signs and words. Doutreleau takes the art lover by the hand, leads them to the mountain’s summit, and helps them understand the essence of being. The quest for beauty involves revealing the dialectic of drama and pleasure, joy and pain, suffering and happiness. It is at this level that Doutreleau’s particular condition becomes a projection of the human condition.
Pierre Doutreleau was born on June 14, 1938, in Arles, France, a region renowned for its luminous light that inspired Jacques Réattu, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gaugin, Vincent Van Gogh and Pablo Picasso. Doutreleau’s early exposure to this unique light profoundly influenced his artistic vision. This became the central theme of his work, characterized by his distinctive application of thick, textural blocks of pigment, reminiscent of de Staël’s style.
In 1958, Félix Aublet, one of Nicolas de Staël’s close friend, finds in Doutreleau’s artwork an evolution of the narrative established by de Staël and supported him to exhibit. Soon after Hélène Cingria introduced him to Lucile Manguin, who had just opened the Galerie de Paris and took him under contract in 1964.
In 1968, during a stay in the United States, Doutreleau had a revelation that would further define his artistic focus: the exploration of speed and movement, capturing the invisible instant to the eye.
Doutreleau continues to paint in his atelier set in the middle of the picturesque region of Camargue, drawing inspiration from his surroundings to pursue his quest in capturing light and motion.
In 1958, Félix Aublet, one of Nicolas de Staël’s close friend, finds in Doutreleau’s artwork an evolution of the narrative established by de Staël and supported him to exhibit. Soon after Hélène Cingria introduced him to Lucile Manguin, who had just opened the Galerie de Paris and took him under contract in 1964.
His paintings are known for their gradients of subtle color, contrasted by a central, often out-of-focus, representational image, offering a psychological exploration of how light is manipulated by speed, reflection, or atmospheric depth. Overall, Doutreleau’s approach to painting is deeply connected to his passion for movement, life, and the elements.
“What really interests me is painting the wind.” he explains, “In life, everything is movement. And if sometimes my paintings give the impression of stillness, it’s because, in reality, they emanate from movement. I paint precise moments of life.”
His works have been exhibited in prestigious art galleries in Europe, United States and Japan, as well as museums around the world, including the Musée d’Orsay in Paris, the Guggenheim Museum in New York, and the Tate Modern in London.
His pieces are also held in esteemed private collections, a testament to his enduring legacy.
Pierre Doutreleau