Simone Lacour
Simone Lacour, the world renowned artist, lived in Rilly-sur-Loire, a small community near Amboise. Renowned. Not famous. It’s doubtful even art anoraks have heard of her. Is this because, with a horror of being classified, she was never part of any art movement?
Simone was the embodiment of a free spirit. She used to drive her motorbike from Paris where she lived to Belgium where she was born, she lived with a Russian countess and wore trousers, shirt and tie at her Exhibition openings.
Simone drew, painted, assembled astonishing collages and sculptures using scraps of aluminium, mirror, gels, metal, cloth and found objects. Her work is joyous. Life enhancing.
She said to one interviewer: ‘How can I paint the same thing every day? Me, who is so influenced by what is happening around me. The light is also different every day’.
Born in Antwerp, Simone moved to Paris in 1953. She divided her time between her beloved retreat in Rilly sur Loire and her studio in Paris.
She exhibited in Paris, Helsinki, Copenhagen, Maastricht, Japan, Luxembourg, Brussels and Biarritz alongside Poliakoff, Dubuffet and Jackson Pollock. Her works have been auctioned at Christie's, yet, like many gifted artists, she died in obscurity.
Vermeer lived in poverty. As late as 1881, his 'Girl with the Pearl Earring' was auctioned for (equivalent of) one euro. Rembrandt died penniless. El Greco remained in obscurity for four hundred years. Van Gogh sold only one painting. His friend Gauguin didn’t fare much better. Cezanne was ridiculed as was Monet, Toulouse Lautrec and Seurat. Modigliani, who couldn’t sell anything, died in poverty. All were avant-garde, all experimented with new techniques and chose unusual subject matters.
Simone had solo exhibitions in Japan, Frankfurt, Luxembourg, Paris, Copenhagen, Helsinki, Maastricht, Reims, Antwerp, Liège, Brussels, Bruges, Chinon, Loches, Amboise and Tours yet there is no public recognition of her. She has something much better. Her legacy lives on with the artist Cédo M** who bought her old home*** with Christian his musician husband. To say Simone’s spirit inspires him is to put it mildly. She is his muse.
Perhaps one day her many fans will be treated to a Retrospective of Simone’s work at La Garage art gallery in Amboise.
(With thanks to Liliane Truchot, Cédo Martin and Christian Masse who are among Simone’s many loyal friends who keep her flame burning)
* Simone Lacour Born Antwerp 1926. Died Rilly-sur-Loire, January 23, 2016
*** La Hallerie route de Vallieres Rilly sur Loire 41150
Post by Pamela Shields BA History of Art. Photography by Mark Playle.
