Armand Avril

Armand Jérôme Avril (; 2 December 1926 – 1 November 2025) was a French painter and sculptor. Self-taught as an artist, he was inspired by African art, by the assembled objects of Louis Pons, and by the art of Gaston Chaissac, among others. Many of his artworks, which defy classification, are held in the permanent exhibition of the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon.

Life and career

Avril was born in Lyon on 2 December 1926; his mother was Corsican and his father from Paris. In the 1940s, he first worked as a plasterer and painter. His father, Marcel Avril, was a painter and a collector of African art, and was also a member of the French Resistance. Marcel Avril was killed by the Gestapo in 1944.

After the war, Avril worked in different fields, including as a plaster-painter. copying paintings by artists such as Jean Dufy, Pierre Bonnard and Henri Matisse, at the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon and the Guimet Museum in Paris. In 1957, he exhibited works in their styles at the Salon du Sud-Est.

Avril travelled in Africa in 1960 for a year,

When he met the art of Gaston Chaissac in Nantes, he was able to convince René Deroudille and Madeleine Rocher, curator at the Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon to exhibit his works there in 1968. In 1973, he created a series of fantasy heads of artists such as Kazimir Malevich, Matisse, Man Ray, Pablo Picasso and Auguste Herbin, as a tribute to Chaissac. In 1985, an exhibition in a gallery in Vence organized by Alphonse Chave showed his response to Jean Dubuffet and art brut. In 2002, he acquired in Paris Bozo sculptures by fishermen from the banks of the Niger in Mali, colourful and poetic, and matching his own works.

Avril discovered the village of Cotignac, where he decided to make his residence. Life there changed his art gradually. He ran a workshop in the house, full of objects telling of his universe independent of fashion.

Exhibitions Exhibitions included:

2021: Musée d'Art Brut. Montpellier 2020: Avril et les Bozo. Centre d'Art La Falaise. Cotignac. 2016: Arène-Avril-Valabrègue, Centre d'art contemporain, Chateauvert 2010: Galerie Laurent de Puybaudet, Paris 2008: Museum of Fine Arts of Lyon 2002: Donation de Muguette et Paul Dini, et de l'Association Armand Avril, 1993: Espaces Culturels des Tours / , La Tronche 1985: , Vence 1984: Maison du Tourisme, Auxerre 1983: Maison des expositions, Genas 1977: Galerie Pierre Robin, Paris 1973: Galerie John Craven, Paris 1972: Galerie du Manoir, La Chaux de Fonds (Suisse) 1970: Galerie Le Lutriin, Lyon