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| Atelier Lacourière-Frélaut | |
|---|---|
| Name | Atelier Lacourière-Frélaut |
| Type | Printmaking workshop |
| Founded | 1929 |
| Founder | Roger Lacourière; Henri Frélaut |
| Country | France |
| Location | Paris |
Atelier Lacourière-Frélaut was a Parisian printmaking studio renowned for intaglio and drypoint work that served as a central node for twentieth-century Parisian print culture; it connected artists from Pablo Picasso to Giorgio de Chirico and engaged with institutions such as the Musée Picasso and the Bibliothèque nationale de France. The studio's role in producing editions for figures like Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, Jean Cocteau, and Alberto Giacometti placed it at the intersection of movements including Cubism, Surrealism, Fauvism, and Modernism. Over decades its technical repertoire, collaborative ethos, and archival holdings influenced collectors, curators at the Museum of Modern Art, and scholars at the Wadsworth Atheneum and the Getty Research Institute.
Founded in 1929 during the interwar period in Paris, the workshop emerged as part of a burgeoning print revival influenced by earlier ateliers like Atelier 17 and by cabinetmakers associated with the Salon d'Automne and the Salon des Tuileries. In the 1930s and 1940s it produced wartime and postwar portfolios linked to patrons such as Gérard Schneider and intermediaries like Ambroise Vollard, maintaining activity through the Occupation and postwar reconstruction alongside contemporaries including Fernand Léger and André Masson. The studio later adapted to late twentieth-century practices as artists connected with the Centre Pompidou and the Tate Modern commissioned prints, continuing until the retirement of its principals and transfer of materials to repositories including the Musée d'Orsay.
The atelier was initiated by master printer Roger Lacourière, who trained in techniques that paralleled those of Gérard-Philippe Lacombe and exchanged methods with printers who worked with Pierre Bonnard and Édouard Vuillard. Henri Frélaut later became co-director, aligning the studio with publishers like Tériade and collaborators such as Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler and Ambroise Vollard historically referenced by artists including Paul Cézanne and Henri Rousseau. Key technicians and assistants included engravers and printers who worked with visiting artists from Joan Miró to Marc Chagall and liaised with dealers like Paul Rosenberg and institutions such as the Galerie Maeght.
The studio specialized in intaglio processes—etching, drypoint, burin work—and combined these with aquatint, chine-collé, and innovative plate-biting strategies used by Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and Henri Matisse in collaborative editions. Its practice involved plate preparation echoing methods from Rembrandt and technical refinements comparable to those in the catalogues raisonnés of Alberto Giacometti and Lucio Fontana. The atelier managed editioning, proofing, states, and hand-coloring procedures for projects linked to publishers such as Cahiers d'Art and print societies like the Sala dei Fasti-style collectors and international exhibitions at the Venice Biennale.
Artists who produced significant prints at the workshop include Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Henri Matisse, Alberto Giacometti, Joan Miró, Marc Chagall, André Derain, Raoul Dufy, Balthus, Gustave Moreau (posthumous editions), Jean Cocteau, Paul Klee, Fernand Léger, Jean Dubuffet, Niki de Saint Phalle, Yves Klein, Lucian Freud, Eduardo Chillida, Giorgio de Chirico, Antoni Tàpies, Georges Rouault, Pierre Soulages, Georges Mathieu, Wifredo Lam, Aleksandra Ekster, Kees van Dongen, Oskar Kokoschka, Jacques Villon, Maurice de Vlaminck, Albert Gleizes, André Masson, Max Ernst, Piet Mondrian, and Wassily Kandinsky in various capacities, often mediated by galleries such as Galerie Denise René, Galerie L'Étau, Galerie Maeght, and collectors like Peggy Guggenheim and Guggenheim Foundation.
The atelier produced landmark portfolios and singular prints including editions associated with Picasso's series for the Suite Vollard, Braque's later drypoints, Matisse's late lithograph collaborations, and Giacometti's portrait prints; institutional acquisitions include works held by the Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Modern, the Centre Pompidou, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and the National Gallery of Art. Special projects comprised limited-edition books and illustrated volumes for publishers like Cahiers d'Art, Tériade, and commission series exhibited at the Venice Biennale, the Salon de Mai, and retrospectives organized by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
The studio influenced twentieth-century printmaking pedagogy at schools such as École des Beaux-Arts and programmatic collections at the Bibliothèque Kandinsky, shaping curatorial practice at the Museum of Modern Art and scholarly work at the Getty Research Institute and the Courtauld Institute of Art. Its technical standards informed conservation protocols at the Conservation Center for Art and Historic Artifacts and the Musée Picasso while inspiring later ateliers and publishers tied to the Galerie Maeght network and international print biennials including the International Print Biennale Kraków.
Archival materials, workshop proofs, plates, correspondences, and edition registers are preserved across institutions: the Bibliothèque nationale de France, the Musée National d'Art Moderne at the Centre Pompidou, the Musée d'Orsay, and specialized collections at the Musée Picasso and the Musée de l'Orangerie. Major museums, university special collections such as at Harvard University and the Yale Center for British Art, and private foundations like the Guggenheim Foundation and the Fondation Maeght hold prints and documentation that support research into collaborations with artists including Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Alberto Giacometti, Joan Miró, and Georges Braque.
Category:Printmaking studios Category:Art workshops in Paris