Composition abstraite 1957

Huguette Arthur Bertrand created this abstract composition with oil on canvas sometime during the mid-twentieth century. It’s an intriguing example of the kind of non-representational painting that flowered in Europe and America after the Second World War. Looking at the social conditions that shaped Bertrand’s artistic production, we can see the influence of earlier movements such as cubism and surrealism. But, with its emphasis on pure form and colour, this painting signals a new kind of aesthetic freedom. What we see here is a painting that self-consciously rejects the traditional academic institutions, as well as the old social hierarchies that went with them. Understanding a painting like this requires an engagement with the history of art institutions and the social forces that shaped them. Researching the critical debates that took place in the post-war period will give us a better understanding of the meaning of this work. The interpretation of art is always contingent on social and institutional context.