24 museomag   02 ‘ 2021 
„WHAT IS ART ANYWAY?“ (1/2) 
AN INTERVIEW WITH FRENCH ARTIST CLAUDE VIALLAT, A REPRESENTATIVE 
OF THE NOUVELLE PEINTURE, ABOUT IMPASSES LEADING TO FREEDOM 
While longhaired people wearing large trousers were 
preaching to make love instead of war, the status quo 
of music and sexuality was being questioned and rein- 
vented, and university students and factory workers took 
to the streets in France demanding a new, and fairer so- 
ciety; the artworld too, gave birth to a new movement. 
The French Supports/Surfaces movement, born in the 
1960s, had turned a page in the history of art books and 
inspired new artists to explore non-conventional art- 
roads. Currently, the MNHA exhibits a few of the works 
of two (out of three) of the fathers of this movement: 
Claude Viallat and Patrick Saytour. We had the opportu- 
nity to talk to Claude Viallat and ask him some questions 
about art and freedom. 
Claude Viallat: „I started working on non-stretched canvas, because the framework was disturbing me since I was working on a 
floor, and walked over the canvas.“ 
© 
f. 
lagarde, 1985