Albert Bitran

Albert Bitran (Still from a video from "l'Encyclopédie audiovisuelle de l'art contemporain").

Albert Bitran arrived in Paris in 1948. He was seventeen. He came from Istanbul -where he was born-to become an architect. But he soon decided to devote himself to painting.

1951, he is only twenty for the solo exhibition of his geometric works, galerie Arnaud in Saint Germain des Prés, and participates in many events of the "avant garde": the first "Abstract Art Exhibition" in Caracas, "Divergences" in the Théatre de Babylone .......

1954, his exhibition galerie Denise René with a preface by Henri-Pierre Roché marks the end of his "geometrical abstraction" period.

1955, in Saint Paul de Vence, he makes his first studies on landscape, a theme that will reappear in his works for the years to come under many different forms.

1956, "Naissance d'un Paysage" (Birth of a Landscape) large collage-painting that will be shown in "l'Envolée Lyrique" (The Lyrical Flight) at the Musée du Luxembourg in 2006. Now in the Geneva Museum, Jean-Claude Gandur's collection.

1957, completes ten stained-glass windows for the church in Schoeneck, North of France.

1958, (from), in his studio rue des Plantes, drawings, maroufles papers, oils, and new themes "l'Atelier", "Interieur-Extérieur" (Inside-Outside). At Mourlot, Bellini, Leblanc, etching and lithography. In the farm in Rigny-le-Ferron, ceramic sculptures and murals. In Paris, Jean Pollac, galerie Ariel, starts showing Bitran, as he will for the next fifty years.

1961, in Copenhagen, solo exhibition galerie Birch, first of many in Scandinavia. He exhibits also regularly in Holland (galerie Nova Spectra and Galerie Martin De Boer) and in Italy where he stays during long periods and works on gouache and lithography.

1965, in Albisola (Italy) he produces ceramics and meets up again with Wifredo Lam.

1967, in Cuba he takes part in the collective canvas completed for the May Show.

1968, Bitran moves to rue Notre-Dame-des-Champs in Montparnasse where he will live and work until 2000.

1970, creation of "les Doubles", analytic interrogation of his painting. "The doubles condense the terms of the enigma" wrote the philosopher Claude Lefort and Jean-Louis Baudry: "With the Doubles Bitran perfects his trap". Following themes: "Obliques", "Linears", "Laterals".

1973, "Sextuor", a sequence of six paintings in close cycle hanged according to a plan by architect Ricardo Porro is presented in museums andgaleries in Norway, Denmark, Holland, Austria, France and is now in the collections of the Toulouse's Museum.

1974, his two thirty meters high murals are completed in Vitry (Paris suburb).

1979 and 1980, Bitran chairs the painting seminar of The Summer Academy in Salzburg and Manès Sperber writes a preface for his exhibition in the Traklhauss.

1981, in his house in the South of France (Lot) experiments of new techniques on paper, cardboard and canvas.

1982, (from), research of "les Grandes Formes" (the Large Forms) that Patrick Bongers will choose for his first show at Galerie Louis Carré, exhibited after galerie Boisserée in Köln, Art Point in Tokio, Birch in Copenhagen, Louis Stern in Los Angeles .......

1991, retrospective of fifty years of works in Campredon Museum. Interview with Jean Paris filmed and published in Coloquio (Gulbekian's Foundation, Lisbon).

1992, the Maison des Arts, Georges Pompidou, in Cajarc, with "Bitran 1980-1992" shows paintings inspired by the light on the cliffs in the Lot.

1994, revisiting souvenirs of his childhood and from his many travels in Turkey he creates "Arcades", painting, drawings and sculptures exhibited in Istanbul, Ankara and in Toulouse in 1998 witha preface by Pierre Daix.

2000, (from), black studies, "les Noirs" , mostly oil on paper, are shown in Mexico (2001) and inArts Centers in France.

2006, the Luxembourg Museum (Paris) shows "Naissance d'un paysage", Bitran's1956 collage in "l'Envolée lyrique" exhibition, joining together artists working in postwar Paris in the movement called later "lyrical abstraction".

2010, in London, two solo exhibitions Grosvenor Gallery,"Oblique" and "Paintings".

2012, in Lyon, Galerie Des Tuiliers, "Erosion des noirs".

2013, in Mont de Marsan Cultural Center: "Méandres".

2014, Bitran is represented in the exhibition "Modernités Plurielles" at the Georges Pompidou Center with "Un soleil neuf" ("A new sun") 1960, from the museum's collection.

2015, in Paris, Galerie Convergences presents "Bitran, Oils on paper".

2016, Istanbul Modern Museum, in the exhibition "Artists in their time" shows the 1959 large painting-collage from its collection. Solo exhibition, April–June, in Luxembourg, "Regard sur Albert Bitran" in Elfebben Mansion.

2017, Fondation Clément, Martinique, "Le Geste et la Matière". "Dessins", Galerie des Tuiliers, Lyon. "Turkish painting goes to Paris", Antalya Cultural Center, Turkey. "Selections", MKM Cultural Center, Istanbul, Turkey. "Affinités en noir majeur", Galerie Convergences & Galerie Gratadou-Intuiti, Paris

In 2000, Albert Bitran left Montparnasse to build his house and studio in Montrouge (Paris).

Albert Bitran had the distinction of "Officier des Arts et Lettres" He died 9 November 2018, aged 87.

(To visualize works of Albert Bitran online refer to the section "External links - Bank of images of ADAGP" below).

Works of Albert Bitran are represented in the following public collections:

• Musée d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris.
• Musée de la Ville de Paris, Paris.
• Fonds National d'Art Contemporain, Paris.
• Musée des Beaux-Arts de Lyon, Donation Jacqueline Delubac, Lyon, France.
• Musée de Nantes, Donation Gildas Fardel, Nantes, France.
• F.R.A.C. Midi-Pyrénées, Toulouse, France.
• Les Abattoirs, musée de Toulouse, France.
• Musée Municipal de Saint Dié, France.
• Musée des Beaux-Arts H. Rigaud, Perpignan, France.
• Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark.
• Ny Carlsberg Fondet, Copenhagen, Denmark.
• Randers Kunstmuseum, Randers, Denmark.
• Genthôfte Radhus, Copenhagen, Denmark.
• Gemeente Museum, The Hague, The Netherlands.
• Centraal Museum, Utrech, The Netherlands.
• FONDATION ROI BAUDOUIN, Thomas Neirynck Collection, Brussels, Belgium.
• FONDATION GANDUR POUR L'ART, Geneva, Switzerland.
• Museum der 20-Jahrunderts, Vienna, Austria.
• Rupertinum Museum, Salzburg, Austria.
• ISTANBUL MODERN, Istanbul, Turkey.
• Istanbul Resim ve Heykel Müzesi, Istanbul, Turkey.
• Contemporary Art Society, London, UK.
• Sonia Henie-Niels Onstad Art Center, Oslo/Norway.
• Lunds Kunsthal, Lund, Sweden.
• Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, San Francisco, U.S.A.
• Museum of Rhodes Island School of Design, New York, U.S.A.
• University Museum, Berkeley, U.S.A.
• Grunewald Foundation for Graphic Arts, Los Angeles, U.S.A.
• Cuban State Collection, Havana, Cuba.
• Fondation Bloemhof, Curaçao.

For a complete list of Albert Bitran's exhibitions please refer to the artist's page in French in Wikipedia.