Yolande Salmon-Duval was born in Le Mans in 1950. For several generations, the members of the family have been joyful and skillful painters and musicians. Faithful to the family tradition, Yolande has been sharing her time between the piano and painting ever since she was a child. But fantasy came later, when she became an adult and when, in 1978, she opted for naive painting.
After her A-levels, with an option in art history, she felt also much attracted by literary studies and particularly foreign languages. In 1972, at the University of Maine (Le Mans, France) she passed a Bachelor's degree in English studies, as well as a DEUG (university diploma taken after two years) in Spanish Studies and obtained a husband in the bargain.
Since then, she has been sharing her everyday life, in a large and pleasant 19th century house with her studio overlooking the garden, with her academic of a husband, a bunch of happy cats, among which, during eighteen blissful years, the celebrated and delicious Leopoldine and, today, Jules, a charming and gorgeous British blue cat.
Yolande Salmon-Duval, whose work was on exhibit at Gallery Naifs et Primitifs in Paris from 1988 to 1997, regularly presents her paintings in solo and group exhibitions in France (Le Mans, Châtellerault, Niort, Béziers, Saint-Malo, Honfleur, Sarlat, La Rochelle, Amboise, Lyon, Nice and Paris etc.) and abroad (U.S.A., Belgium, Israel, Italy, Iran, Germany, Greece, Japan); she has been awarded several prizes and medals and has been guest of honor in art fairs.
Yolande Salmon-Duval will celebrate her forty years of naïve painting in December 2018 with a major solo exhibition at the Salle “Anne de Bretagne”, close to Morlaix, in Britanny.
Solo Exhibitions
1988 Galerie des Remparts, Le Mans, France
Jacques Goupil Gallery, Alencon, France
1989 Galerie Naifs et Primitifs, Paris, France
1990 Tourist Office, Sable, France
1992 Galerie Acanthe, Saint-Malo, France
1993 Metamorphose Gallery, Montargis, France
1995 Singatures Gallery, Honfleur, France
1998 Galerie d’Art Spontane, Bruxelles, Belgium
Galerie Rive Droite, San Francisco
2000 Damon Gallery, Chatellerault et Ile de Re, France
Le Choiseul, Amboise, France
2001 Chisseaux Gallery, Paris, France
2003 ArtG Gallery, Beziers, France
2004 Anne de Bretagne Gallery, Morlaix, France
2005 Damon Gallery, Poitiers, France
2006 MIDAN Gallery, Vicq, France
Galerie du Chateau de Tredion, Morbihan, France
2008 Galerie de l’Eclat de Verre, Le Mans, France
2010 Galerie L’Atelier de Marianne, Paris, France
2013 Hotel Le Choiseul, Choiseul, France
Group Exhibitions
1983 Maine Plastic Arts Show, Le Mans, France
1988 The Halle au Ble Art Show, Alencon, France
1992 Art Show, Brive, France
1994 “Naןve Gourments”, Joigny, France
1998 International Naןve Art Show, Croissy-sur0Seine, France
“Couleurs du Pays de Caux”, Auffay, France
“Cercle des Arts de Paris”, Town Hall, Paris, France
“Artists as witnesses of their times”, Beauvallon, France
Haute-Loire Salon, Le Puy-en-Velay, France
European Painters and Sculptors Art Show, Livron, France
1999 Group Exhibition, Samoens, France
“120 Pittori Naifs aGuiglia”, Modena, Italy
The Christmas Miniature Show, Chelsea Mansion, New York
Art Show, FICF, Sarlat, France
2000 Group Exhibition, Dinard, France
Group Exhibition, Andresy, France
Group Exhibition, Versailles, France
“Naןve and Primitive”, Espace St-Martin, Paris, France
2001 Art Show organized by FICF, Athens, Greece
2004 Art Show organized by FICF, Tehran, Iran
2005 “The Artists of French Naןve Art”, Tokyo, Japan
“The twentieth anniversary of the Choiseul Resort”, Amboise, France
2006 Naןve Art Festival, Verneuil-sur-Avre, France
The Cat Museum, Richelieu, France
2007 “Naןve-Joie de Vivre”, Gina Gallery of International Naןve Art, Tel Aviv
Prizes
1986 1st Prize, “Lefranc-Bourgeois”, Maine Plastic Arts Show, Le Mans
1987 Public Favorite, “Halle au Ble, Alencon
1998 2nd Prize, European Painters and Sculptors Art Show, Livron
2002 Guest of Honor, “Colours and Passions, Cheptainville/Arpajon, France
2005 1st Prize, “The twentieth anniversary of the Choiseul Resort”,
Amboise, France