Louis Cane

Louis Cane is a French painter and sculptor, co-founder of the Support/Surface movement, which emerged in France in the late 1960s. He studied at the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs in Nice, where he began experimenting with the materiality of painting. In 1967 he co-signed the manifesto of Support/Surface, a radical group that questioned the traditional components of painting by deconstructing stretcher, canvas, and pigment, seeking to reveal their physical and conceptual foundations. His early works often employed stamping, cutting, and staining techniques to foreground the process and material of painting itself.

From the mid-1970s onward, Cane distanced himself from the group’s strict theoretical framework and moved toward a renewed engagement with figuration. He developed large-scale paintings of interiors, figures, and mythological themes, while also producing important sculptural works in bronze, terracotta, and marble. Exhibited internationally and represented in major French collections, Louis Cane remains an influential figure of postwar art in France, recognized for both his role in the Support/Surface movement and his independent exploration of painting, sculpture, and decorative arts.