Geneviève Claisse

Geneviève Claisse (French pronunciation: [ʒənnvjɛv klɛs]; 17 July 1935 – 30 April 2018) was a French geometrical abstract painter. A relative to Auguste Herbin, her painting vocation was born through reading the magazine Art d'aujourd'hui, tribune of geometrical abstraction. Claisse was the great niece of abstract painter Auguste Herbin, a founder of the Parisian association of artists Abstraction-Création. Herbin saw Claisse's work for the first time when she was eighteen years old, and encouraged her to continue painting. In Herbin's mind, Claisse was "le successeur désigné par le destin et par l'hérédité" ("the successor appointed by destiny and heredity"). Like Herbin, Claisse's work shows a devotion to the ideals of formal purity and the perfection of execution. At this young age she worked tirelessly, often working at night after a day in the studio, carefully painting abstract forms on bold, colorful canvases.