Galerie Paul Prouté

After creating his very first abstract paintings during the winter of 1942–1943, Debré gained experience in lithography at Jean Pons’s studio on Rue de Vaugirard. Around the same time, he produced numerous ink drawings with a strongly calligraphic style. It was during this period that the term “signes-personnages” first appeared.

This series of “sign-figures” developed primarily from 1945 onward, driven by a desire to convey, through the expressiveness of his brushwork, his emotional response to the horror of the concentration camps. At the time, it seemed inconceivable to the artist not to express himself. However, no figurative representation seemed capable of illustrating the shock he felt; instead, he chose a semi-abstract, brutal, and frenetic mark—inspired by a reality whose memory Olivier Debré had made his own—to convey his sensations and impressions. From that moment on, the artist clearly began to explore the influence of the psyche and emotion on form. Conventionally, he is classified among the painters of “lyrical abstraction,” a term he preferred to “fervente abstraction.”

The artist is also known for having designed the stage curtains for the Comédie Française, the Hong Kong Opera, and the Shanghai Opera, and for having adapted this theme into lithographs.