Editing Gen Paul

{{short description|French painter}}

{{Infobox person 
| name        = Gen Paul
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| birth_name  = Eugène Paul
| birth_date  = {{Birth date|1895|7|2|mf=y}}
| birth_place = [[Montmartre]], France
| death_date  = {{death date|1975|4|30|mf=y}}
| death_place = [[Paris]], France
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| occupation  = [[Painting|Painter]]
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'''Gen Paul''' (July 2, 1895 – April 30, 1975) was a French [[Painting|painter]] and [[engraver]].<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Wolpert |first1=Martin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=36LqAAAAMAAJ |title=Modern Figurative Paintings: The Paris Connection |last2=Winter |first2=Jeffrey |date=2004 |publisher=Schiffer Pub. |isbn=978-0-7643-1962-4 |location=University of Michigan |pages=121–122 |language=en}}</ref>

==Biography==
Born as '''Eugène Paul''' in a house in [[Montmartre]] on the [[Rue Lepic]] painted by [[Van Gogh]], he began drawing and painting as a child.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Gen Paul |url=http://rehs.com/Gen_Paul_Bio.html |access-date=2022-12-18 |website=rehs.com |language=en-US}}</ref> His father died when he was only ten years old and Gen Paul was trained to work in decorative furnishings. He served in the French army during [[World War I]] and was wounded twice, losing one of his legs. During his convalescence, he returned to painting, and at [[Le Bateau-Lavoir]] he became friends with [[Juan Gris]] who helped him a great deal. Although Paul never received any formal training, he made a living from his art for almost 60 years.  While his early works reflected the influences of his friends in Montmartre, Vlaminck, Utrillo and Frank Will, he soon developed dynamic form of expressionism reflecting influences as varied as [[Toulouse-Lautrec]], Van Gogh, [[Cézanne]], [[Francisco Goya|Goya]], [[Diego Velázquez|Velázquez]] and [[El Greco]].  Between 1925 and 1929, he produced many of his best works.  The paintings during this phase are characterized by motion created by gestural brush strokes, daring compositions, forced perspectives, diagonals, zigzags, juxtaposed areas of abstraction and realism and flat areas of color.  Unlike other expressionists of the time such as [[Soutine]], [[Georges Rouault|Rouault]] and the German [[expressionism|expressionists]], Gen Paul's works are full of optimism – fueled by his passion for life and daily life and his desire to overcome his handicap.  Due to the dynamism and motion inherent in his paintings, some consider Paul to be the first action painter, a precursor to the [[abstract expressionism|abstract expressionists]] of the 1950s.{{citation needed|date=December 2020}}

Paul died at the [[Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital]] in Paris on 30 April 1975 and was interred in the [[Cimetière Saint-Vincent]] in Montmartre. A great many of his works remain in private hands but a number of his important pieces can be found at museums in France and in other parts of Europe.

===Career===
Paul first exhibited at the [[Salon d'Automne|Salon d’Automne]] and the [[Salon des Indépendants]] in [[Paris]] in 1920. In 1928, his works were exhibited with those of [[Pablo Picasso]] and [[Chaïm Soutine]]. Paul began the 1930s with a [[alcoholism|serious addiction to alcohol]], further complicating his chronic health problems.  The paintings of 1930s reflect a more somber mood with precise lines and carefully chosen colors and an emphasis of rhythm over motion.  From the 1940s through his death, Paul reverted to a style of action painting characterized by many of the elements of his work in the 1920s, but his later work never again succeeded in recapturing the innovation, emotion and expressionism of his earlier works.

In 1934, he was recognized for his contributions to France and was awarded the [[Légion d'honneur|Legion of Honor]]. In 1937, he was contracted to paint a large [[fresco]] for the Pavilion of Wines of France at the [[Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moderne (1937)|Paris International Exposition]].

In addition to painting scenes from his native Montmartre, including that of his friends, composer [[Darius Milhaud]], writer [[Louis Ferdinand Celine]], Paul travelled to the United States where he painted jazz and classical musicians, a subject with which he had much interest.

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://www.findlaygalleries.com/artists/period/gen-paul/ Gen Paul Biography - Findlay Galleries].
*[http://www.genpaul.fr Galerie Roussard's Gen Paul website].
*[https://issuu.com/parismontmartre/docs/__pm_08_03_13 "Gen Paul et Jean Pierre Serrier"] by Marie-France Coquard in ''Paris Montmartre'', No. 13-90, March 23, 2013, pp. 10-13 (in French).
*[https://www.gazette-drouot.com/lots/6565839-gen-paul-1895-1975- Portrait of Gen Paul] by [[Jean Pierre Serrier]], dated 1970.


{{Authority control (arts)}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Paul, Gen}}
[[Category:1895 births]]
[[Category:1975 deaths]]
[[Category:Painters from Paris]]
[[Category:20th-century French engravers]]
[[Category:20th-century French painters]]
[[Category:20th-century French male artists]]
[[Category:French male painters]]
[[Category:French engravers]]
[[Category:French Expressionist painters]]
[[Category:French modern painters]]
[[Category:Modern printmakers]]
[[Category:Art Informel and Tachisme painters]]
[[Category:People of Montmartre]]
[[Category:French military personnel of World War I]]