Georges Prémet

Key facts

Movement

• Post-Impressionism

• What is Georges Prémet known for?+

  Premet is known for his prints and illustrations, which suggest involvement in the graphic arts traditions of late 19th or early 20th-century France. This was a period when poster design, book illustration, and decorative printmaking were flourishing.
• What should I know about Georges Prémet's prints?+

  When considering Georges Prémet's prints, it is helpful to understand some basic print terminology. Original prints are produced by hand, with the artist creating the artwork directly on a plate, woodblock, stone, or screen. These include woodcuts, engravings, linocuts, mezzotints, etchings, lithographs and serigraphs. Each print is considered an original because the artist creates the artwork directly. Original prints are often sold through specialised print galleries, frame shops, and fine art galleries. The number of prints in an edition is decided by the artist. The prints are numbered to provide an accounting of the number of prints in the edition. For example, a print numbered 12/25 means it is print number 12 of an edition of 25.. By contrast, reproductions are copies of artworks originally conceived in another medium, such as painting. These are usually made by photochemical means.
• What style or movement did Georges Prémet belong to?+

  Georges Prémet belonged to the Post-Impressionist movement. Post-Impressionism followed Impressionism, and it marked a further liberation of colour in painting. Lasting roughly from 1880 to 1905, Post-Impressionism included artists such as Seurat, Gauguin, Cézanne, Toulouse-Lautrec, and van Gogh. These painters shared a dissatisfaction with what they saw as the unplanned, unfocused nature of Impressionist works. They wanted to create art with more substance, going beyond the mere capturing of fleeting moments. The Post-Impressionists diverged into two main approaches. Seurat and Cézanne focused on formal design, with Seurat using his pointillist technique and Cézanne employing colour planes. Other Post-Impressionists, like Gauguin, van Gogh, and Lautrec, placed greater emphasis on expressing their emotions through colour and light. These different paths within Post-Impressionism had a significant effect on 20th-century art, leading to diverse styles such as Cubism and Surrealism.
• What techniques or materials did Georges Prémet use?+

  The passages provided do not offer specific details about Georges Prémet's techniques or materials. However, they do offer some context about painting techniques in general. Artists are free to select any material, but the material itself influences the final artwork. Some artists have attempted to reproduce the techniques of earlier masters, such as those of the Italian Renaissance; however, replicating these exactly is difficult due to changes in the materials available. Different materials, like oil, tempera, and watercolour, produce different effects, even with the same pigment. Similarly, drawing materials such as pencil, charcoal, and pastels each lend unique qualities to a work. The choice of material is often determined by the effect the artist wishes to achieve.
• What was Georges Prémet known for?+

  Georges Prémet is known for his paintings within the Post-Impressionist style. Post-Impressionism followed Impressionism and, according to some, marked an even more revolutionary period in art. It liberated colour and opened painting to new possibilities. Post-Impressionism is not considered a movement, but rather a collection of artists with varied styles. These artists grew dissatisfied with the limitations of Impressionism and moved away from it in different ways. They painted what they felt, as well as what they observed. This freed painting to deal with emotions and material reality. Prémet's work, along with that of other Post-Impressionists, moved art closer to abstraction. This gave tremendous freedom to the next generation of artists. Examples of his work include "Chestnut Trees", "Place Vintimille, 1911", and "Public Gardens, 1894".
• Where can I see Georges Prémet's work?+

  Georges Prémet (1866-1951) was a French architect and painter, best known for his Orientalist subjects. His paintings appear at auction fairly regularly. To find Prémet's work in public collections, begin with the Artnet database or the Art UK website, which catalogues paintings, drawings, prints and sculpture in UK public collections. These are good resources for locating works by lesser-known artists. Bear in mind that museum collections databases are not always complete. Some works may be in storage, or not yet catalogued online. You may also wish to consult auction catalogues. These can be a useful source of information about an artist's body of work, although access to older catalogues may be limited. Catalogues may also provide provenance information, exhibition history, and other details not available elsewhere. However, auction records do not reflect the totality of an artist's output, only those works that have come onto the market.
• Where was Georges Prémet from?+

  Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes was born in Montpellier, France, in 1884. He began painting around 1904 or 1905. He studied in Jean-Paul Laurens's studio, and at the Académie Julian; however, he found these lessons unsatisfying. Ribemont-Dessaignes explored Neo-Impressionism, the Nabis, Fauvism, and Cubism. Between 1908 and 1912, he exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants. His work was influenced by the Nabis, but after befriending Francis Picabia and the Duchamp brothers, he broke with established schools. He then produced mocking paintings composed of machine-like forms. He retained friends among the Surrealists and played a role in Surrealism, without fully joining the movement. During World War One, Ribemont-Dessaignes was conscripted and assigned to an office job. In 1929, he became editor-in-chief of the Henry magazine Bifur. After World War Two, he settled in Saint-Jeannet, near Nice, where he again took up painting and drawing, creating southern French views in a linear style. Ribemont-Dessaignes died in Saint-Jeannet, France, in 1974.
• Who did Georges Prémet influence?+

  Georges Prémet's style was carried on by his assistants almost until the end of the 14th century. His work was often copied at the request of King Charles V, and also of the Duc de Berry. Later, Paul Cézanne directly quoted from Gustave Courbet's compositions, such as Cézanne's Bridge at Maincy (1879-80), which invokes Courbet's Shaded Stream (1865). Courbet's importance to subsequent generations can be observed visually. His painting resonates strongly with artists working in an abstract (or an abstracting) mode. The question of Courbet's influence is a recurring trope in accounts of artists working at different times and places, in different pictorial styles and media. Jeff Wall's photograph The Drain (1989) is traced back to Courbet, via Cézanne. Wall makes it clear that he is making art from art, and that his practice has been informed by a variety of pictorial sources.
• Who influenced Georges Prémet?+

  Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes (born in Montpellier, 1884; died in Saint-Jeannet, France, 1974) began painting around 1904. Dissatisfied with instruction at Jean-Paul Laurens's studio and the Académie Julian, Ribemont-Dessaignes explored Neo-Impressionism, the Nabis, Fauvism, and Cubism. He exhibited at the Salon des Indépendants between 1908 and 1912. His work showed the influence of the Nabis school of Post-Impressionist painters. After befriending Francis Picabia and the Duchamp brothers, he broke with established schools. He then produced mocking paintings using machine-like forms. The spirit of derision was already at the centre of Ribemont-Dessaignes's sensibility. Picabia and the Duchamp brothers encouraged him to continue in this vein. Like Marcel Duchamp, Ribemont-Dessaignes stopped painting for a time. He remained friends with Surrealists and played a role in Surrealism, without fully joining the movement. After World War Two, he settled near Nice, where he painted southern French scenes in a linear style.
• Who was Georges Prémet?+

  Georges Prémet (dates unknown) was a French artist. He is not to be confused with the film director Pierre Prévert, though the two were brothers. Prémet did not seriously begin making collages until late in his life. His collages have been described as being similar to his poetry: sometimes grotesque, sometimes ingenious. His art has been described as sentimental, but not insipid. Prémet's work incorporates objects, such as pebbles taken from beaches. His collages often eroticise symbolic female nudes. One source claims his works correspond to the most sincere emotions. Hugnet's *La Septieme face du de: Poemes-decoupages*, published in 1936, was Surrealism's first attempt to combine graphics with poetry in collages of cutout images and printed letters and words. He succeeded in creating a world bearing the traces of a dark romanticism, demonstrating chance as involved in the procedure of cutting with scissors. His works are mirrors reflecting the unconscious.
• Why are Georges Prémet's works important today?+

  Georges Prémet's work is important as a reaction against superficial neo-Modernism in French architecture. After a period dominated by pastiche and empty signs of contemporaneity, figures like Prémet sought a return to rationalism. In 1982, Chemetov organised the exhibition *Modernity: An Incomplete Project*, which examined the lack of continuity within the Modernist tradition in France. This exhibition, and others like it, compared international architects such as Richard Meier with French designers including Ciriani and Roland Simounet. These polemical exhibitions aimed to demonstrate the persistence of Modernism; however, they also revealed the fragility of intergenerational ties. Prémet, along with architects such as Berger, Faloci, and Lion, exemplified a tendency toward "calming the waters". This involved a more disciplined approach, rediscovering "a coherence and a rationality" that stood in contrast to facile effects. This rediscovery of Modernism, liberated from ethical militancy, allowed for the exploitation of conceptual and technical freedoms. The work of Prémet and his contemporaries represents a desire for simplicity and a move away from Postmodernist excess.
• What was Georges Prémet's art style?+

  Georges Prémet's art style is considered Post-Impressionism. His work reflects the graphic arts traditions of late 19th and early 20th-century France.