Born in 1898, Fautrier was raised in London from the age of ten. He received his artistic training at the Royal Academy of Art and the Slade School of Art.

Fautrier served in the First World War but was discharged in 1921 because of ill-health.  The war put his artistic skills on hold and only after the war did his paintings come into play.  During the 1920's, Fautrier developed a style that distanced his work from the style of Surrealism, late Cubism and Hard-edged Abstraction.

Fautrier stopped his artwork and moved out of Paris due to economic downturn during the 1930s.  To get back on his feet again he worked as a ski instructor, night-club patron and hotel proprietor in the French Alps.  However, he returned to Paris at the outbreak of WWII and began painting again.

From that point on Fautrier began to sculpt and draw for his friends' exhibits such as Ganzo's Orenoque and Lespugue in 1942, Eluard's Dignes de vivre in 1944, and Paulhan's Les Causes celebres in 1945.  In 1943, Drouin, a friend of Fautrier, showcased Fautrier's sculptures, prints, and drawings at his gallery.

In 1945, Fautrier had a second exhibition at the Galerie Rene Drouin exhibiting his painted panels known as Otages or hostages.  

In 1957, he had another exhibition at the Galerie Rive Droite entitled Fautrier, 30 annees de Figuration informelle.

He died in 1964.

Influences

Fautrier's series of painted panels known as Otages or hostages were paintings of half obliterated remains of human faces with damaged flesh and bone.  This series of work emphasized the horrors of war.  For Fautrier himself, "these paintings addressed the most important issue of their time, epitomising a 'new human resolve' against the horrors of war," (Morris, 89).

Remains of human faces and damaged flesh and bone, these words provide such a clear image of war time as it is being read.