Olivier Debré, born in Paris in 1920, was one of the major representatives of French lyrical abstraction. A student of Henri Goetz, he quickly turned away from figuration to explore the expressive powers of color and symbol.

In his "sign-characters," the broad, fluid brushstrokes convey the emotion of a landscape or a fleeting moment. Debré seeks to paint not the visible form, but the energy that flows through it. His large canvases, often inspired by the Loire River or Norway, exude a sense of quiet grandeur.

An academician and professor at the École des Beaux-Arts, he contributed to the dissemination of a sensitive and meditative abstraction. Olivier Debré passed away in 1999, leaving behind a luminous body of work, poised between breath and silence.