André Borderie
(France, 1923 – 1998)
Boccara Gallery presents “The Tower of Fire”, a 1970s tapestry signed “Borderie” and numbered “1/3”.
André Borderie had a classical technical training, yet he spent all of his youth drawing. After becoming a state employee in telecommunications sector, he later, in 1942, met the poster designer Paul Colin who encouraged him to turn to painting.
In 1946, he met the couple Véra and Pierre Székely in Vienna, Austria. They were both sculptors, and the encounter resulted in his decision to devote himself entirely to art. In 1948, Borderie and his wife moved to Bures-sur-Yvette near the home of his new friends, setting up a small artists’ community. There, they devoted themselves to ceramics and painting. They signed their work using the same signature until 1957. The community then disbanded, and André Borderie and his family moved to Senlis, where he continued to work on his pottery and painting alone.
Concerned by the environment, Borderie joined the group Espace in 1955, a group that aimed to bring modern art and ideals of constructivism into urban space and social arena. From then on, he won numerous commissions through the government body devoted to the promotion of the arts ‘1%’ and created significant sculptural works for public spaces including fountains, bas-reliefs, frescoes and monumental sculptures in a variety of materials such as steel, concrete, stainless steel, ceramics, mosaic tiles, paint etc. Borderie also became involved in the interior decoration of private houses and in the elaboration of architectural utopias.
A constantly developing artist, his meeting with Denise Majorel, co-director of the gallery La Demeure, led him to experiment with tapestry making. André Borderie is renowned for his paintings, his tapestries and his ceramics.
