Armand Avril

{{Short description|French painter and sculptor (1926–2025)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=November 2025}} {{Infobox person | name = Armand Avril | image = Armand Avril (1a).jpg | alt = Three-quarter profile, colour Press shot, of a smiling, bespectacled, clean-shaven, elderly man, with thinning grey hair | caption = Avril in 2021 | birth_date = {{Birth date|df=y|1926|12|02}} | birth_place = Lyon, France | death_date = {{Death date and age|df=y|2025|11|01|1926|12|02}} | death_place = Cotignac, France | occupation = Painter, sculptor | known_for = | notable_works = }}

'''Armand Jérôme Avril''' ({{IPA|fr|aʁmɑ̃ avʁil|lang}}; 2 December 1926 – 1 November 2025) was a French painter and sculptor. Self-taught as an artist, he was inspired by African art, by the assembled objects of Louis Pons, and by the art of Gaston Chaissac, among others. Many of his artworks, which defy classification, are held in the permanent exhibition of the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon.

==Life and career== thumb|upright|Avril's ''Mer à Cassis'' (1986)

Avril was born in Lyon on 2 December 1926; his mother was Corsican and his father from Paris. In the 1940s, he first worked as a plasterer and painter.<ref>{{cite book |date=2002 |title=Armand Avril, itinéraire, peintures et assemblages |language=fr |location=Villefranche-sur-Saône |publisher=Musée Dini et Association des amis d'Armand Avril |page=121 |oclc=401628327 }}</ref> His father, Marcel Avril, was a painter and a collector of African art, and was also a member of the French Resistance.<ref name="TSS">{{cite web |work=Treger Saint Silvestre |date=2025 |title=Avril, Armand |url=https://www.tregersaintsilvestre.com/artists/armand-avril-2/ |access-date=6 November 2025 }}</ref> Marcel Avril was killed by the Gestapo in 1944.<ref name="TSS" /><ref name="Ballester">{{cite book |last=Avril |first=Armand |url=https://worldcat.org/fr/title/314525934 |title=Après nous le déluge et vive la couleur! |date=2005 |publisher=Centre d'art La Malmaison |isbn=978-2-9520745-8-2 |location=Cannes |page=134 |language=fr |trans-title= |access-date=5 November 2025}}</ref>

After the war, Avril worked in different fields, including as a plaster-painter.<ref name="Le Progrès" /> He was self-taught as an artist,<ref name="AV">{{cite web |date=2025 |url=https://www.lartvues.com/montpellier-lartiste-armand-avril-lhonneur-dune-exposition-au-musee-dart-brut/ |title=Montpellier: l'artiste Armand Avril l'honneur d'une exposition au musée d'Art brut |language=fr |work=L'art vues }}</ref> copying paintings by artists such as Jean Dufy, Pierre Bonnard and Henri Matisse, at the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon and the Guimet Museum in Paris. In 1957, he exhibited works in their styles at the Salon du Sud-Est.<ref name="Le Progrès" /> He joined the {{ill|Groupe Témoignage|fr|Témoignage (peinture)}} and first exhibited at Lyon's Galerie Folklore. As part of the group, he met artists such as Jean Bertholle, Alfred Manessier, César Geoffray, Jean Le Moal, Étienne Martin, and François Stahly.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gavoty |first=Bernard |date=1989 |title=Marcel Michaud: Lyon 1933-1958, Stylclair, Groupe témoignage |language=fr |location=Lyon |publisher=Espace Lyonnais d'Art Contemporain |page=19 |oclc=47034508 }}</ref>

Avril travelled in Africa in 1960 for a year,<ref name="MBA Lyon" /><ref name="AV" /> where he met Louis Pons, an artist who included assembled objects in his work. Avril also began a new way of expression in assemblages of objects in bas-relief, using waste material and discarded objects such as "bottle caps, clothespins, parts from children's toys, croquet balls, glue, nails and empty tin cans".<ref name="TSS" /><ref name="Ballester" />{{rp|136}} A critic wrote that he expressed himself through "poetic universe overflowing with humor and vitality".<ref name="AV" /><ref name="Lyon">{{cite book |date=2018 |title=Catalogue Raisonné du MBA de Lyon, Sculptures du XVIIe au XXe siècle |language=fr |location=Lyon |publisher=Somogy Editions d'Art |pages=478–479 |isbn=978-2757212691 |access-date=}}</ref>

When he met the art of Gaston Chaissac in Nantes, he was able to convince René Deroudille and Madeleine Rocher, curator at the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon to exhibit his works there in 1968. In 1973, he created a series of fantasy heads of artists such as Kazimir Malevich, Matisse, Man Ray, Pablo Picasso and Auguste Herbin, as a tribute to Chaissac.<ref name="MBA Lyon" /> In 1975, he released the "Alignement" series, composed of several spherical works assembled into groups.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.mba-lyon.fr/mba/sections/fr/expositions-musee/expositions-dossier/archive-expo-dossier/avril-armand/ |title=Armand Avril |work=Museum of Fine Arts Lyon |language=fr}}</ref> In 1985, an exhibition in a gallery in Vence organized by Alphonse Chave showed his response to Jean Dubuffet and art brut. In 2002, he acquired in Paris Bozo sculptures by fishermen from the banks of the Niger in Mali, colourful and poetic, and matching his own works.<ref name="MBA Lyon" />

His "Mer à Cassis" series drew inspiration from Wols, based on his experience during World War II.<ref name="Lyon"/> His tapestries bear witness to impressions from a trip to Indonesia with a technique known as ''ikat''.<ref name="Ballester" />{{rp|137}}Later in life, he contributed significantly to the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon, where many works are featured in the permanent exhibition.<ref name="Le Progrès" /> A large exhibition there was dedicated to his art in 2008.<ref name="MBA Lyon">{{cite web |date=2 November 2008 |title=Armand Avril |url=https://www.mba-lyon.fr/en/node/1159 |work=Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon |language=fr |access-date=7 November 2025}}</ref>

Avril discovered the village of Cotignac, where he decided to make his residence. Life there changed his art gradually. He ran a workshop in the house, full of objects telling of his universe independent of fashion.<ref name="MBA Lyon" />

Avril died at home in Cotignac on 1 November 2025, at the age of 98.<ref name="Le Progrès">{{cite news |date=2 November 2025 |title=L'inclassable peintre lyonnais Armand Avril est décédé |url=https://www.leprogres.fr/culture-loisirs/2025/11/02/le-peintre-lyonnais-armand-avril-est-decede |newspaper=Le Progrès |language=fr |access-date=5 November 2025}}</ref>

== Exhibitions == Exhibitions included:<ref name="Richter">{{cite web |date=2025 |title=Armand Avril |url=https://richterbuxtorf.ch/armand-avril/ |work=Richter Buxdorf |language=fr |access-date=8 November 2025}}</ref>

* 2021: Musée d'Art Brut. Montpellier * 2020: ''Avril et les Bozo''. Centre d'Art La Falaise. Cotignac. * 2016: ''Arène-Avril-Valabrègue'', Centre d'art contemporain, Chateauvert * 2010: Galerie Laurent de Puybaudet, Paris * 2008: Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon<ref name="MBA Lyon" /> * 2005: ''Après nous le déluge'', Malmaison de Cannes * 2003: ''Peintures et assemblages (1962 à 2002)'', Le Tremblay, Centre National d'Art Contemporain / Musée Municipal de Rabastens * 2003: ''Armand Avril'', Musée d'Art Naïf – Max Fourny, Paris<ref>[http://www.artaujourdhui.info/e13435-avril.html Armand Avril] artaujourdhui.info.</ref> * 2002: Donation de Muguette et Paul Dini, et de l'Association Armand Avril, {{ill|Musée Paul-Dini|fr}} * 1993: Espaces Culturels des Tours / {{ill|Musée Hébert (La Tronche)|lt=Musée Hébert|fr|Musée Hébert (La Tronche)}}, La Tronche * 1985: {{ill|Galerie Alphonse Chave|fr}}, Vence * 1984: Maison du Tourisme, Auxerre * 1983: Maison des expositions, Genas * 1977: Galerie Pierre Robin, Paris * 1973: Galerie John Craven, Paris * 1972: Galerie du Manoir, La Chaux de Fonds (Suisse) * 1970: Galerie Le Lutriin, Lyon

== References == {{reflist}}

== External links == * [https://www.artnet.com/artists/armand-avril/ Armand Avril]—''Artnet'' * {{YouTube|f2Ex_a3PDTw|Armand Avril au Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Avril, Armand}} Category:1926 births Category:2025 deaths Category:20th-century French male artists Category:20th-century French painters Category:20th-century French sculptors Category:21st-century French male artists Category:21st-century French painters Category:21st-century French sculptors Category:French male painters Category:French male sculptors Category:Painters from Lyon Category:Sculptors from Lyon