1957-1961
BEAUX-ARTS
PARIS

Cécile Martial studied at the Beaux-Arts de Paris. It is a figurative period where landscapes print the architecture of her paintings. Cécile Martial was a logist at the Prix de Rome Painting Competition. This competition marked a turning point in Cécile Martial’s painting, which was to be confronted with abstraction from then on.

In 1961, the new Minister of Culture, André Malraux, wanted to modernize the Prix de Rome. He asked Max Ernst to orchestrate the change. This competition is in three sessions. The subject of the first session is free, Cécile Martial paints Les Fenêtres (The Windows). The theme of the following sessions will be Mariage du Ciel et de la Terre (Marriage of Heaven and Earth) of which Cécile Martial keeps the sketch.