Bernard Cathelin

Bernard Cathelin has an extensive following in France, USA, Japan, Switzerland, Canada and England and has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Blumenthal Prize (1950), the Emily Loewe Prize (1953) and the Othon Friesz Prize (1958).

Cathelin has been featured in over 50 exhibitions worldwide and was a member of the School of Paris, which included such luminaries as Matisse, De Buffet, and Maurice Brianchon.  Amongst the important and prestigious shows have been Fondation Gianadda à Martigny (Suisse) in 1985, Château de Chenonceau (France) in 1987, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence (France) in 1992, Daimaru Museum Tokyo (Japon) in 1994, Château de Bagatelle (France) in 1995, Musée de la Seita (France) in 1996, Rétrospective au Musée de Valence (France) in 1997, and Retrospective at the Museum of Shangai (Chine) in 2000. 

Cathelin’s painterly sensibilities distinguished him among his peers in a generation where painting became less an art than a process. His international appeal is in part due to the energy and vitality seen throughout his work. Cathelin’s work is recognized for its strength, simplicity and sincerity, and is characterized by purity and potency.  Icon-like in form, it possesses a subtle richness which is conveyed through texture and colour. Cathelin’s canvases present a radiant synthesis of life and art. It is the passionate sensibility of the artist that emerges from the canvas to capture the viewer’s attention, resulting in dynamic images, where landscapes are not stationary and models are not still. 

Cathelin is also a master lithographer having worked for over 30 years at the Mourlet Atelier in Paris beside such contemporaries as Chagall and Picasso. A three volumne catalog raisonne documents his achievements and works from the 60's through the early 2000's.