Georges Dayez 1907-1991
Georges Dayez was born in Paris on 29th July 1907. He was a French painter, engraver and lithographer.
Dayezs father, Jules Dayez, was a lithographer with a small intaglio workshop in Paris. In 1924, Dayez took an apprenticeship at his fathers studio and attended Académie de la Grande Chaumière in Montparnasse and the Académie Julian in Saint-Germain-des-Prés.
In 1926, Dayez was awarded a scholarship to study at the studio run by the French painter Lucien Simon (1861-1945) at the École des Beaux-arts in Paris. Dayez spent the following year completing his national service and in 1928 exhibited for the first time at the Salon dAutomne. Alongside fellow French artist Edouard Pignon (1905-1993) Dayez then worked in the studio of the sculptors Henry Arnold (1879-1945) and Robert Wlérick (1882-1944). It was here that both Dayez and Pignon developed a passion for Cubism and the Avant-Garde.
Dayez and Pignon remained great friends for the rest of their lives, and (in 1931) cycled together to the Côte dAzur where they joined lAssociation des écrivains et artistes révolutionnaires (AEAR) and, alongside other artists exhibit at the Salon des Indépendants. Dayez was conscripted back into the military in 1939 and after fighting at Vernon, Évreux and LAigle, was captured by the enemy at Montaigu. Following his release in December 1940, Dayez returned to Paris and married in February 1941.
While in Paris during the war, Dayez became friends with he French sculptor, painter, teacher and writer André Lhote (1885-1962). After the Liberation he exhibited at the Salon d'Automne alongside other french painters - including Picasso, Matisse, Léger, Bonnard and Braque. Along with four other young painters, Dayez exhibited at the inauguration exhibition of Denise René Gallery (1945), and with Salon de Mai at the Pierre Maurs galerie (1945) and on the fourth floor of the Galeries Lafayettes department store (1946).
Dayez had his first solo exhibition at the gallery at Hôtel de Guénégaud, Paris in 1947 and following a trip to Italy that same year, exhibited alongside Jacques Lagrange (1917-1995), at the Galerie de France (1948).
In February 1951, Dayez joined the executive committee of the Salon de Mai,travelled to Spain and exhibited in Stockholm, Sweden. He exhibited at the Villand et Galanis gallery (1954, 1962 and 1965). He was a juror for Prix de Rome - a French scolarship for art students (1956-1967) and became a professor and head of the lithography workshop at the École des Beaux-Arts, Paris (1967-1975).
Georges Dayez died in Paris on 10th February 1991, aged 84.