Bernard Réquichot: Les Réquichot de Cordier

Bernard Réquichot attended various Catholic schools around Paris. He began painting religiously inspired pictures in 1941. From 1947 to 1951, he attended a number of art schools and workshops in Paris: Académie Charpentier, Grande Chaumière, Beaux-Arts, Atelier d’Art Sacré, École des métiers d’art, Atelier Souverbie and Atelier Brianchon.

Between 1948 and 1951, he produced numerous grease pencil drawings (animals, shoes, etc.), the Grosses bonnes femmes series, studies of oxen, nudes, skulls and still lifes, with a systematization of planes that later led to their fragmentation and projection in space.

From October 16, 1951 to October 9, 1952, he did his military service in Nancy.

In 1953, he attended the engraving workshop at the Beaux-arts. He studied and assimilated cubist techniques. He became friends with Jacques Villon, who influenced his approach. He gradually abandoned cubic representation and produced his first abstract paintings (1953-1954). From 1953 to 1956, he took part in the restoration of Romanesque frescoes at the Saint-Hilaire church in Asnières-sur-Vègre.