Louis Cane


Louis Cane was a French painter, sculptor, and furniture designer. He was a member of the Supports/Surfaces movement in France, which lasted from 1969 to 1972. Much of his work focused on the concept of deconstruction of the canvas.

Biography

Cane was born on 13 December 1943 in Beaulieu sur Mer, France. He attended the National School of Decorative Arts in Nice then the Superior School of Decorative Arts in Paris in 1961, obtaining a diploma in Interior Architecture.
Cane was a part of the Supports/Surfaces movement in France, which lasted from 1969 to 1972, and co-founded and edited the Peinture, Cahiers Theoriques.
Cane died in Paris on 3 November 2024, aged 80.

Work

Cane focused on the concept of deconstruction of the canvas. For his series, Louis Cane artiste peintre français, he continuously stamped his name on a sheet, exploring the idea of personal branding.
By 1970, Cane transitioned into a series of cut-out paintings, the toiles découpées, which he worked with for several years. His process for paintings was much like Jackson Pollock or Helen Frankenthaler, by painting the unstretched canvas on the ground.
He participated in the second and third exhibition of the Supports/Surfaces group at the Théâtre de la Cité Internationale in Paris.
In 1971, Cane had his first solo exhibition in Paris at the Daniel Templon Gallery, followed by the Yvon Lambert Gallery in 1972. From 1972 to 1972, he produced a series called Sol/Mur as part of the Supports/Surfaces movement.
Cane continued his abstract series until 1975. These canvases were unstretched, spread on the floor, spray painted and folded in half, then cut and staples directly on the wall.
In 1978, Cane returned from abstract painting to figuration. He reflected on the history of pictorial forms. He also started integrating sculpture into his practice. The statues were almost exclusively female occasionally appearing in form of burlesque or baroque expressionism.
Cane was also a furniture designer, which is an important part of his artistic creation.

Selected exhibitions

Solo exhibitions