Robert Carlton Breer

Robert Carlton Breer (1926–2011) was an American painter, filmmaker, and pioneer of avant-garde animation associated with geometric abstraction and experimental film. After studying at Stanford University, he moved to Paris in 1949, where he produced large abstract paintings.  In 1950 he joined the artist roaster of the Galerie Denise René. “Once I joined … I was absorbed by the prevailing practice and approval of abstract, hard-edge, geometric painting. In our gallery, at least, Tachism was considered weak and irrelevant”.
Breer became part of the community of American expatriate artists working in the city and moved within the same artistic circles as Ellsworth Kelly, Ralph Coburn, and Jack Youngerman. His work was also reproduced in the 1951 issue of Art d’aujourd’hui devoted to American painting, which featured several young American artists active in Paris.