Gérard Sendrey

French painter Gérard Sendrey, born in Bordeaux in 1928 and died in Bègles in 2022, pursued a path in which drawing and writing went hand in hand with a longstanding commitment to singular forms of artistic creation. Around 1967, he began devoting his leisure time exclusively to painting and drawing; after twelve years of deliberately solitary practice, he showed his drawings to the public for the first time in 1979 at the Galerie du Fleuve in Bordeaux. Drawing subsequently became his preferred means of expression, alongside writing. He also illustrated books, notably in collaboration with Hédi Bouraoui and, regularly, with Jean-Louis Massot, while his poetic and literary texts appeared in around twenty publications.

Before devoting himself more fully to these activities, Sendrey worked in local government administration, first at Bordeaux City Hall and then at Bègles City Hall, where he had lived since the 1970s. On his retirement in 1988, he opened the Imago gallery. Established to present works by singular and marginal artists, or those associated with art brut, the gallery formed part of a project that also included the creation of the Fonds de la Création Artistique Brute et Inventive (FCABI). In 1989, on the occasion of the exhibition « Les jardiniers de la mémoire », it became a site for Création Franche, with the support of mayor Noël Mamère.

The first public presentation of his drawings attracted the attention of Michel Thévoz, then director of the Collection de l’art brut in Lausanne, who included Sendrey in the Neuve Invention collection; his works are catalogued in this collection. They are also held in the L’Aracine collection at the LaM. His solo exhibitions include a presentation at the Galerie du Fleuve in Bordeaux in 1979, an exhibition entitled « Gérard Sendrey » at the Galerie Duflon-Racz in Bern in 2010, and « Gérard Sendrey: Constantly Inconstant » at the Dean Jensen Gallery in Milwaukee in 2018.

Works recorded at auction

Germann

Untitled

Mixed media on paper

Original catalogue wording

Sans titre
Mischtechnik auf Papier.

Date to be documented

Catalogue reference — sale not confirmed

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DognyAuction

Composition

Mixed media on paper

Original catalogue wording

Composition
technique mixte sur papier

Date to be documented

Published result : 312 CHF

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DognyAuction

Composition

Mixed media on paper

Original catalogue wording

Composition
technique mixte sur papier

Date to be documented

Published result : 312 CHF

Fees not specified in the available data

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DognyAuction

Quatres visages

crayons, technique carte à gratter, titré , signé et daté 96 au dos

Date to be documented

Published result : 375 CHF

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DognyAuction

Face

encre et feutre sur papier

Original catalogue wording

Visage
encre et feutre sur papier

Date to be documented

Published result : 187 CHF

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DognyAuction

Faces

Ink on paper

Original catalogue wording

Visages
encre sur papier

Date to be documented

Published result : 375 CHF

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Germann

Trois visages de face, 1999

Ink on paper

Original catalogue wording

Trois visages de face, 1999
Tusche auf Papier.

Date to be documented

Catalogue reference — sale not confirmed

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References excluded from statistics: attributions and special lots

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