In 1953, Lucas Suppin chose Saint-Paul de Vence as his new abode and was adopted by the throng of artists living there. Over the years that followed, encounters with Picasso, Léger, Atlan, Prévert, Chagall, Miró, Fautrier and Tzara led to sometimes close friendships and joint exhibitions. In this period, Suppin grappled intensively with French painting traditions, which resulted in a thorough transformation of his own style: at first he created Cubist works, before abandoning representational painting and turning instead to Art Informel. Picasso and Matisse were particularly strong influences in this respect, giving him the impetus he needed to move towards abstract, entirely colour-driven art.

Suppin remained in France for 18 years, before family circumstances brought him back to Salzburg in 1967. In the 1970s he developed a new signature style, focusing on assemblage art, which was conceived as an innovative way of transcending the material. At the beginning of the 1980s he began to concentrate again on intrinsic painterly values, while always exploring new terrain in many different directions.

The artist’s later works show the hegemony of vibrant colours and a single-minded interest in the creative process. Suppin transformed the light of the Algerian Sahara, where he spent the winter months, with gestural impetus and a true explosion of colour in further proof of the strength and energy he found in creative self-renewal.

Today, Suppin’s works can be found in many renowned museums and collections. In 1950, he received the Prize of the State of Salzburg, and in 1973 was made a professor. In 1985, François Mitterrand gave him the order of a knight of the Legion of Honour. In 2008, a large retrospective held at the Carolino Agusteum Museum in Salzburg and the accompanying monograph finally presented Lucas Suppin’s work with the level of recognition he deserves for his enormous importance to Austrian art.