Martin Barré was born in Nantes (France) in 1924. He died in Paris (France) in 1993.
Martin Barré died in 1993, leaving a body of work whose diversity and intelligence assure him of an eminent place in the history of the art of the second half of the 20th century.
Exerting a growing influence on young generations of painters, his work is to be found in many public and private collections and has featured in a number of major exhibitions, notably at the MAMCO in Geneva (Switzerland, 2019), at the Galerie Nathalie Obadia in Paris (France, 2013), at the Galerie Nationale du Jeu de Paume in Paris (France, 1993), at the Musées des Beaux-Arts of Nantes and of Tourcoing, at the Galerie des Ponchettes and at the Galerie d'Art Contemporain in Nice on the occasion of a traveling exhibition (France, 1989), at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (France, 1979).
A major solo show has been dedicated to the artist at the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris (France) from October 2020 to January 2021.
The exhibition put on at Galerie Nathalie Obadia in 2006, Idées de la peinture, Hommage à Martin Barré, reaffirmed the importance of this most unusual artist, and his relevance to other practices. Barré's work was shown in juxtaposition with works by Christian Bonnefoi, Raoul de Keyser, On Kawara, Peter Halley, Robert Mangold, Albert Oehlen, Bernard Piffaretti, Pascal Pinaud, and Christopher Wool.
In 2008 a major monograph was published by Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Thea Westreich and Ethan Wagner jointly with Galerie Daniel Buchholz and Andrew Kreps. It accompanied the English translation of Yve-Alain Bois's text, Martin Barré, originally published in 1993 in the "La Création contemporaine" collection by the Centre National des Arts Plastiques and Flammarion.
Martin Barré's works are also featured in prestigious international public collections such as the Art Institute of Chicago (USA), the Fondation Gandur pour l'Art Contemporain (Geneva, Switzerland), the Houston Museum of Fine Arts (USA), le LaM - Lille Métropole Musée d'Art Moderne, d'Art Contemporain et d'Art Brut (Villeneuve-d'Asq, France), the MAC/VAL (Vitry- sur-Seine, France), the MAMAC (Nice, France), the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (France), the Musée des Beaux-Arts of Montreal (Canada), the Musée national d'Art Moderne - Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris, France), the Salomon R. Guggenheim Museum (New York, USA).
The Galerie Nathalie Obadia, Paris/Brussels, has been trusted with the Estate of the artist since 2006.