most influential artists of the 1950s. However, he moved away from abstraction in his later paintings, seeking a more "French" lyrical style, returning to representation (seascapes, footballers, jazz musicians, seagulls) at the end of his life. His return to imagery during the early 1950s can be seen as an influential precedent for the American Bay Area Figurative Movement, as many of those abstract painters made a similar move; returning to imagery during the mid-1950s. His painting style is characterized by a thick impasto showing traces of the brush and the palette knife, and by a division of the canvas into numerous zones of color (especially blues, reds and whites). His most well-known late paintings of beaches and landscapes are dominated by the sky and effects of light. Much of de Staël's late work—in particular his thinned and diluted oil on canvas abstract landscapes of the mid-1950s—predicts Color field painting and Lyrical Abstraction of the 1960s and 1970s. Nicolas de Staël's bold and intensely vivid color in his last paintings predict the direction of much of contemporary painting that came after him including Pop Art of the 1960s. The French New Wave filmmaker Jean-Luc Godard has stated that de Staël is his favorite painter, and the use of primary colors in his film Pierrot Le Fou was strongly influenced by de Staël's work. See also School of Paris Tachisme Lyrical Abstraction References Sources Exhibition Catalogue, Nicolas de Staël, paintings 1950–1955, Mitchell-Innes & Nash, NYC. 1997, . Douglas Cooper, Nicolas de Staël, Masters and Movements, Weidenfeld and Nicolson Ltd. London, 1961. Lefevre Fine Art, Thomas Gibson Fine Art, "Works on Paper" Nicolas de Staël, "Sans Titre", page 60 External links Pompidou Center show, in French artcyclopedia entry Nicolas de Staël, in French museums Nicolas de Staël biography on Applicat-Prazan Nicolas de Stael: In Memoriam Art Informel and Tachisme painters 1914 births 1955 suicides Abstract painters School of Paris 20th-century French painters 20th-century French male artists French male painters White Russian emigrants to Poland Polish emigrants to France Painters who committed suicide Painters from Brussels Modern painters Landscape artists French still life painters Baltic-German people Suicides in France Soldiers of the French Foreign Legion Suicides by jumping in France French abstract artists