Louis Cane, born December 13, 1943 in Beaulieu-sur-Mer1 in the Alpes-Maritimes, is a contemporary French painter and sculptor.

In 1961, Louis Cane entered the National School of Decorative Arts in Nice and then completed two years of studies at the National School of Decorative Arts in Paris.

In 1967-1968, he exhibited, with Arman, Benjamin Vautier, Noël Dolla and Patrick Saytour, in the Hall of Remedies, new place opened by Ben in Nice, a canvas obliterated by a series of stamps, all over the surface paper (All-over), "LOUIS CANE ARTIST PAINTER". The stamps constitute, with the pasted papers (wallpapers then cut into thin strips and glued on kraft paper) the first works of the artist.

For the first collective exhibition of the group Supports / Surfaces, Claude Viallat refuses the participation of Louis Cane, who then distributes in the exhibition, a theoretical text, contesting the coherence of the group, leaflet which inaugurates a series of controversies and disputes.

The review, Peinture, cahiers théoriques, of which Cane is one of the founders, appeared in 1971, at the same time as the divergences within the group Supports / Surfaces are accentuated. He directed the same year, his first solo exhibitions in Paris (Daniel Templon gallery and Yvon Lambert gallery) and participated in the second and third exhibition of the Supports / Surfaces group at the Théâtre de la Cité Internationale in Paris in April, then in June at the theater from Nice.

Until 1975, Cane continued his abstract series: Canvases cut from 1970, canvas without frame, spread on the floor, then spray painted and folded in half, finally cut and stapled directly on the wall followed by the Canvas floor of 1972, reflection on space in painting and on chromaticism, finally the series Sol / Mur of 1974-1975, black canvases saturated with color by spray.

Between 1973 and 1978, he made many trips to Italy, where Raphael's frescoes at the Vatican influenced him, then studied classical painting, particularly that of Cimabue and Giotto.

In 1975 and 1976, he began to practice a semi-abstract painting: first drawings on the Meninas and first paintings painted with arches, with the appearance of the angel. In 1977, it is part of the exhibition "The avant-garde 1960-1976: three cities, three collections" traveling exhibition (Marseille, Grenoble, Saint-Etienne and Center Georges-Pompidou in Paris) in which appeared most of artists of the movement Supports / Surfaces.

From an abstract painting to a definitive return to figuration, in 1978, Louis Cane reflects on the history of pictorial forms and embarks on an exacerbated figuration of emblematic figures, naked and quartered women, deliveries, Annunciations, lunch on the grass ... Cane has never hidden his sources: Picasso, Manet, Monet, Goya, Rembrandt, Matisse, Frank Stella, Jackson Pollock, and finally Kooning.

The sculpture that he approaches in 1978, is for him a familiar discipline, since his years of learning. The statues, almost exclusively feminine, revive the traditional practice of modeling, and the forms are then sometimes burlesque, sometimes pathetic, a Baroque expressionism. We can cite for example the Las Meninas series (inspired by Velasquez among others), or Desmoiselles on a swing.

During the construction of the new cathedral of Evry, he creates a modern tabernacle, of cubic form. It is covered on five sides with mosaics inspired by those of the primitive Church. The themes of decoration are the symbols used by early Christians: dove, grapes, bread, fish.

Louis Cane, who was a student of Decorative Arts, is also a talented furniture designer, this activity representing an important part of his artistic creation (especially in recent years).

Source:
"Louis Cane," Wikipedia, 2018 (Google Translate)

Following is an exhibition review published February 3, 2018 on the website of Blouin Art Information;

"Structularist thinking in Louis Cane at Ceysson & Benetiere, Paris, by Nicolette Loizou, December 26, 2017

Using resins on netting stretched over a metal frame, as in his Peinture(s) vraiment abstraite(s), the artist has since the late 1990s revived the structuralist and analytical thinking of the ‘Supports/Surfaces’ years, which is today being examined closely by the young American scene.

There is no pretense of depth, the colored screen is no longer an illusionist space, and the window actually opens, beyond the depiction or presentation. The passage reveals the stretcher and the underlying space. These works are both porous and reflective and are spaces of interval or mid-places, between two waters that bind together the front, the inside and the outside.

Louis Cane is a French visual artist who designs furniture and handbags as well as paintings and sculpture. He was born in 1943. He has had numerous gallery and museum exhibitions, including at the Fondation Maeght and at the Ceysson and Benetiere, Paris. Many works by the artis have been sold at auction.

The exhibition is on view through February 3, 2018, at Ceysson & Bénétière, 23, rue du Renard 75004, Paris.

Louis Cane was born in 1943 Beaulieu-sur-Mer, France. As a French painter, Cane had a solo exhibition at the Center Pompidou in 1977 and took part in documenta 6. In addition to conceptual and abstract works, his oeuvre also includes figurative works. Other works by him are in the collection of the Maeght Foundation in southern France.