Pierre Tal Coat

Pierre Tal Coat left a remarkable legacy in painting, sculpture, and printmaking. His work was highly admired by many of the greatest artists and poets of the twentieth century. He is considered one of the founders of Tachisme.

Biography of Pierre Tal Coat

Pierre Tal Coat was born Pierre Louis Jacob in 1905 in Clohars-Carnoët, France. His primary school years (1912-1914) were cut short by World War I. The loss of his father in 1915 at the Argonne front deeply impacted him. However, in 1918, he found solace and a way to express himself through a blacksmith apprenticeship, which ignited his artistic passion. This talent was recognized with a national scholarship, allowing him to attend the Quimperlé upper primary school.

He began his working life in 1923 as a clerk to a notary in Arzano. The following year, he moved to Quimper and found work as a decorator at the Keraluc porcelain factory, where he created characters and landscapes inspired by the Brittany countryside.

In 1924, Tal-Coat arrived in Paris, a bustling center for the arts. While juggling diverse roles – modeling at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière, molding at the prestigious Sèvres porcelain factory, and even completing his military service – he met the painter Émile Compard and the influential gallerists Auguste Fabre and Henri Bénézit. He exhibited at their gallery under the name of Tal-Coat. His artistic direction solidified further in the 1930s. He joined the Forces Nouvelles group in 1932, and in 1936, his protest against the Spanish Civil War fueled his powerful "Massacres" series.

World War II disrupted Tal Coat's artistic pursuits. Drafted in 1939, he served in Saint-Germain-en-Laye and Ermenonville before demobilization in Montauban in 1940. Despite the war, Tal-Coat remained active, participating in the "Twenty Young Painters of French Tradition" exhibition (1941) and later showing at the Galerie de France (1943). He returned to Paris in 1945, ready to contribute to the first Salon de Mai exhibition.

Tal Coat's artistic stature continued to grow. In 1956, his work shared the prestigious Venice Biennale stage with renowned artists like Jacques Villon and Bernard Buffet. He collaborated with artistic giants like Joan Miró on the creation of the Maeght Foundation in 1963. He received the Grand Prix National des Arts in 1968.

Tal Coat found a permanent home in Normandy in 1961, acquiring the Dormont Carthusian building near Vernon, where he passed away in the summer of 1985.