Germaine Gardey

Biography

Germaine Gardey
(1904, Saint-Androny - 1995, Groix)

After having spent her childhood in the Gironde estuary, Germaine Gardey studied at the Fine Arts School of Bordeaux between 1921 and 1924. Admitted in the Fine Arts School in Paris, she at the same time frequented the Academy of la Grande Chaumière and studied painting with Othon Fiesz. Married in 1928 to a Breton coming from Lorient, Germaine Gardey discovered Morbihan and the Ile de Groix. At the end of the Second World War, the family moved in Finistère. The rapidness of execution and bright colours of her work bring to life her painting. The spontaneity of her gesture shows her impetuous temperament. From “géomoniers” (people harvesting a special seaweed, the goémon, in Brittany) on the Groix Island to purplish skies at low tide ; from dark rocks in Saint-Nicolas to waves battering on the coast, she was working on the water motif relentlessly. With the colours and material used, Germaine Gardey's work is close to abstraction. She worked daily on landscapes, portraits, still lives and marine lives to refine and affirm her art. She remembered a solid academic education but kept a freedom of execution to paint the pattern. Fascinated, she painted with liveliness landscapes of the Brittany coast that she underlined with a gouache or charcoal line to underline the essential and develop her sharp gaze.

From Paris to provinces, the artist exhibited in numerous salons including the Salon d'automne and the Salon de la Marine.

Exhibitions selected

Group exhibitions

2017 - Ailleurs est ici, École des Filles, Huelgoat
2016 - L'attrape-feu, Ecole des filles, Huelgoat
2014 - Exote - Esthétiques du divers, Ecole des filles, Huelgoat
2013 - Femmes artistes en Bretagne, Musée du Faouët
2001 - Groix dans les années cinquante, Ecomuée de Groix
1982 - Mairie du XIIIe, Paris
1975/76 - Galerie Vertige, Paris
1974/75 - Mairie de Colombes
1963 - Galerie du Rond-Point, Paris
1962 - Maison de la Bretagne, Paris
1957 - Galerie Rauch, Paris
1950 - Mairie de Vincennes
1945-47 - Galerie 7, rue Guénégaud, Paris
1944 - Galerie du Verseau, Paris
1944 - Galerie Pelletan Hellen, Paris

Salons and Fairs

Salon d'Automne, 1938, 1939, 1942
Salon de l'Ecole française, 1939, 1942
Salon Blavia, Blaye,  1939, 1948
Salon de la Marine, 1943, 1945

Collections

Mairie de Blaye
Ville de Paris
Mairie de Groix
Mairie de Colombes
Ecomusée de Groix

Bibliography

2014 - M.P. Piriou, C. Puget, F.F. Costes, Germaine Gardey, Couleurs d'Ouest, éditions Françoise Livinec
2013 - M.P. Piriou, J.M. Michaud, D. Delouche, Femmes artistes en Bretagne, musée du Faouët, Liv'Editions
2006 - L. Kerlo, J. Duroc, Peintres des côtes de Bretagne, tomes 4 et 5, éditions du Chasse-Marée