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André Pasture

André PASTURE (°1928 Maubeuge – † 2006 Loiret)

André PASTURE arrived in Belgium in 1947, where he studied advertising at the Royal Academy of Brussels, graduating in 1949 with top marks. After his military service in France, he didn’t return to Belgium until 1957, where he helped with the implementation of Expo 58.

For 20 years (1960-80), he worked almost exclusively for SNCB. He won several international prizes, including the Arlequin de Livourne (1961). In 1966, he won a prize at the first Biennale of Posters, Warsaw, for his poster “500 km en train de soirée via Paris” (500 km by evening train via Paris), and with “Grande capacité et puissance de transport chemins de fer européens UIC” (Great capacity and power of European UIC railway transport), he won the European railways poster competition in 1972.

Pasture’s style was revolutionary for SNCB. He gave shape to a simple white background by masterfully arranging areas of deep colour over the top. When he depicted humans, he accurately captured the psychology of their character using geometry.

In his need for abstraction, he used refined graphic symbols and, in the mid-1960s, switched from opaque watercolours to transparent stickers. This technique allowed him to create even more subtle colour nuances by sticking several colours on top of each other. The slight sheen the stickers gave during printing was another advantage. The white background acted as a separator, on top of which the text was aligned perfectly. In his later works, Pasture opted for the purity of abstraction. Art for art’s sake, with the text separated from the image.

The artist could not deny his immense admiration for the Swiss movement and Josef Müller-Brockman. Leo Marfurt’s influence is also evident. And he himself has undoubtedly influenced others.
In addition to posters, Pasture also designed coffee mugs and railway stamps for SNCB.

 

 

 

 

 

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