GÉRARD CYNE (1923-2006)

Elongated wooden fruit on wheels Wood and painted metal. 24 x 59 cm. WORKSHOP FUND GÉRARD CYNE (1923-2006) Gérard CYNE was born in Paris on March 17, 1923, to a father who installed telephone lines and a mother who was a homemaker. His artistic and literary gifts were evident from an early age. The premature death of his father in 1935, when he was only twelve years old, profoundly affected his future prospects. His mother, forced to work to support the family, had to place him in the PTT orphanage in Cachan. He was quickly noticed for his literary talents, but felt restricted, held back, prevented from expressing himself freely, and lived very unhappily there. These difficult years spent in Cachan will mark his life. Hired in 1939 at the PTT, he met the painter and sculptor André BORDERIE (1906-1978) and Roland AVRIL. The various successive jobs he held there did not suit him, nor did they allow him to devote enough time to his already multifaceted creative passion: writing, painting, sculpting, playing and composing music. So he left the establishment in 1946. He then joined forces with the sculptor and painter Pierre SZEKELY (1923-2001) and André BORDERIE. In 1948, the three of them moved to Bures-sur-Yvette, in a "doll's house", according to Gérard, with Véra SZEKELY (1919-1994), painter, ceramist, sculptor, wife of Pierre, and Maria, future wife of André. The artists created ceramic works in particular. Unknown in the artistic world, they do not manage to live from their work. After a year of collaboration, moved by the feeling of not contributing enough to the project financially, but of being an embarrassment for his comrades, Gérard CYNE decides to leave the association. At this time, he already plays the violin perfectly. Very attracted by the piano since his youngest age, he takes lessons with Juliette ARTUR (sister of José). He also played the oboe and the double bass very well. For a while, he played in the "Collège Inn" band with the pianist Marcel YONNET. He also animated an artistic season at the Hotel Regina in Perros-Guirec with a group of artists including Pierre DORIS and Jacques MARIN. To (over)live, he became a house painter, worked fourteen months at Citroën, repainted Wurlitzer slot machines for a year and a half, without ever abandoning his creative passion. In 1951, the City of Paris hired him. He was successively a stadium guard, a swimming pool supervisor and a bath and shower employee. He finished his career there in 1982. During this period, he took advantage of the slightest moment of freedom that his various jobs allowed him to paint and sculpt and... Gérard also began to exhibit his work. Gérard and André Borderie took part in exhibitions together, in 1969 at the Galerie La Demeure, in 1972 at the Galerie Saint-André, in 1975 at the Château d'Eymet and then at Senlis. In 1975, the death of his mother left him totally distraught. He also lost his great friend Roland AVRIL in 1980. This sudden death affected him deeply but brought him closer to Zina AVRIL, his wife, who supported him without fail and allowed him, during the last twenty-five years of his life, to devote himself fully to art without worrying about any kind of recognition (even if, among other things, at the request of the architect Bernard GOGOIS, he created two sculptures for public buildings in Nor d in 1984). Whatever the period, his multiple gifts (painting, sculpture, writing, music) materialize around recurring themes: - plays such as, for example, "Mongolus" (noticed by Daniel BOULANGER who had it deposited with him at the Maison de la Radio) or "Benoît Ledru" are repeatedly reworked and abundantly commented on, extended, illustrated by paintings, engravings, drawings (Eructavits series) and very original musical compositions; - series" of paintings around the "Bouvines" (which were to be exhibited at Walter THOMPSON's), the "Dentists", the "Fugues" (the latter, painted on various supports, some of which are mobile, illustrate the permanent imbrication of music and painting in his work); - sculptures (bronze, granite, earth, composite materials.sculptures (bronze, granite, clay, composite materials, etc.) around "Ladies", "Sportsmen", "Insects", "Sanit'Art", etc. Passionate about science and technology, he makes a series of "Machines à rien" (for example "Les Evinçoirs" intended to scare people away!) whose mechanisms are driven by electric motors, pedals, bellows, pistons which produce, in fine, noises and sounds... However, it would be reductive to