Archiguille Guille, Cso Verbier, 1999, Print on Paper, Framed

Edition: 30/100; Augustin François Guille, known as Archiguille (born in Alès on May 17, 1932 - August 30, 2017) was a French painter. Archiguille was born in Alès. He spent his childhood in Vendargues in the south of France during the Second World War under the German occupation. Attracted by painting as a means of expression, he began at school to be fascinated by the letters of the alphabet, which in turn led him to foray into the oriental art of calligraphy. From 1946 to 1948, he attended the Arts and Crafts Teaching Center, Saint Jodard, Loire. In 1952, he arrived in Paris and worked at the Atelier du Timbre. In 1956, he met Georges Braque. In 1957, he achieved his first sales with a work of lyrical abstraction. In 1958, he took a course with Professor Lemagny, (Rome Prize for painting), Academy of Fine Arts. Archiguille's first exhibition took place in 1953 at "La Librairie de l'Institut" in Paris. He showcased his passion for calligraphy with drawings of letters and color spots on cardboard. It was not well received at the time and proved unsuccessful. His meeting with G. Braque in 1956 who advised him to further develop his talents as a painter and to master a wider range of techniques was decisive for the development of his career. Without having a thorough knowledge of figurative painting, Braque says, "you will never fully learn to feel your art deep within you." On his advice, François Guille, who was not yet called Archiguille, met Professor Lemagny (Academy of Fine Arts) and refined his painting techniques under his tutelage for about two years, learning to perfect his craft by favoring nature drawings. and figurative landscapes. “Antiquity, Renaissance, Impressionism, Fauvism, Expressionism… Archiguille has seen everything, tried everything, learned everything. From each school, he captured the know-how and the spirit. It is from this astonishing pictorial culture that he drew most of his work. It is from this universal story that came a very personal creation that he calls: "Transfiguration". In 1958-1967, Archiguille founded the School of Transfiguration in Chicago named after the transfigurative movement he pioneered in the mid-1960s. showed their luminous expressive works characterized by new compositions and plastic innovations. The use of "transfigurations" allowed Archiguille to find his place in the fine arts."