Francis Bott 1904-1998

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  Composition 1947 (2)
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  Composition c. 1948 (3)
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  Composition c.1948 (4)

Artist Information

Francis Bott is the 'lost' artist of the post-World War 2 Ecole de Paris. Born in Frankfurt in 1904, he initially earnt his living as a singer and a poet before taking up painting with encouragement from Oscar Kokoschka. In the 1930's and early 1940's, he worked as a surrealist and exhibited at the 1947 Gallerie Maeght Surrealist Show organised by Andre Breton and Marcel Duchamp.

By 1948, however, Bott's art had undergone a dramatic change. He embraced abstraction and, as early as February of that year, was showing alongside Pierre Soulages and Hans Hartung at the Gallerie Rene Bretau, Paris. Soon after Lydia Conti offered him a solo exhibition.

By 1952 Bott's reputation had attracted the attention of Baroness Alix de Rothschild leading her to offer him a stipend and a commission to design and make stained glass windows for the chapel of her chateaux at Reux. A commission which Bott carried off with considerable aplomb.

By 1955 Bott's star was truly in the ascendant and he received an exhibition alongside Ben Nicholson at the Kunsthaus, Zurich. In 1957 Willy Maywald and Clarissa Dreyer made their film 'Three Artists from Montparnasse' featuring Bott, Soulages and Marie Helene Vieira da Silva. Bott was now at the centre of the Ecole de Paris.

His participation in the 1958 'Ecole de Paris' show at the Gallerie Charpentier cemented his position within the school and, whilst there are clear synergies with the works of Poliakoff and de Stael at this time, Bott should be seen as their collaborator in an ongoing artistic dialogue. Bott's style continued to develop throughout his career and in the 1960's and 1970's he embarked on two major pictorial series, namely Espaces Concertes and Cathedrales. These represented a change to a more linear approach and are more characterised by more vibrant colours in keeping with the mood of the times.

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