1923 Geneviève Asse was born in Vannes (Morbihan, Brittany) on January 24th, 1923 and was raised by her maternal grandmother at Bonnervo manor on Rhuys peninsula.

1932 After her parents’ divorce, 10 years-old Geneviève and her twin brother Michel joined their mother in Paris. In her company, she visited numerous museums in France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Paris Universal Exhibition in 1937.

1937-39 She goes every week to the Louvre to admire, among others, Chardin’s still lifes.

1940-42 She attends the National School of Decorative Arts. She enrolls in UNEF (French students national union) to act against the German occupiers. Her mother remarried surgeon Etienne Le Sourd, owner of Delalain editions.

1942-43 She exhibits for the first time at Salon des moins de trente ans where she is noticed by industrialist and collector Jean Bauret who points her out to Jeanne Bucher. At his place, she meets Beckett, Charchoune, Lanskoy, Poliakoff, de Staël, Bram and Geer van Velde.

1943-44 Geneviève Asse lives in Montparnasse and meets Othon Friesz; Paints objects with Atelier de l’Echelle group and draws nudes.

1944 Joins her brother in the FFI (French Resistance). Joins the 1st DB as an ambulance driver, participates in the Alsace and German campaigns, and volunteers for the evacuation of Terezin camp (Czechoslovakia). She is awarded the Croix de Guerre in Karlsruhe (1945).

1946 Back in Paris, Geneviève settles in Saint-Germain des Prés and designs for the fabric houses Bianchini-Ferrier, Flachard, Paquin, and for her friend and collector Jean Bauret.

1946 and 1947, she exhibits still lifes at Salon d’Automne.

1948 Geneviève Asse discovers Italy during a trip to Sicily and Calabria.

1950 Installation of her workshop on Boulevard Blanqui. (Difficult years materially speaking).

1953 Meets poet and publisher Pierre Lecuire, who buys her paintings and introduces her to engraving.

1954 First solo exhibition in Paris at Galerie Michel Warren.

1957 She works near Saint-Tropez, in a small cabin facing La Treille Muscate, where Colette had stayed. Her research tends to make the object disappear.

1958 Participates in Salon des Réalités nouvelles.

1960 Large white canvases “iridescent with light”. First exhibition in Geneva, Galerie Benador.

1961 Exhibition at Lorenzelli Gallery in Milan. On this occasion, she meets Giorgio Morandi in Bologna. She meets writer Silvia Baron Supervielle who arrives from Argentina.

1963-64 Goes to London, where she admires Turner's paintings. Group exhibition at the Galerie Krugier et Cie in Geneva, where she would exhibit continuously until 1983. First collage-painting.

1965 Travels across Spain and Portugal. At Prado museum, she discovers Zurbaran, Velázquez and Goya. Travels to Oslo, where the Kunstnernes Hus shows a major exhibition of her works.

1969 Krugier gallery holds Geneviève Asse's first personal exhibition in Geneva. The catalog includes a text by Jean Leymarie. It is both a retrospective and the presentation of the book Litres by Pierre Lecuire, with 34 original engravers by Geneviève Asse. This book is named one of the fifty best books of the year.

1970 Personal exhibition at Contemporary art national center, rue Berryer in Paris, curated by Germain Viatte. She leaves the small workshop she occupied on Quai d’Anjou to settle in a new workshop rue Ricaut.

1972 A large number of her engravings are acquired by the French National Library. “Ligne blanche intérieure” dated 1971 enters the collections of National Museum of modern art. Geneviève Asse illustrates and edits “Abandoned”, an unpublished text by Samuel Beckett. The exhibition “Paris and contemporary painting” is presented in Latin America.

1973 Contemporary art national center devotes an exhibition to poet and publisher Pierre Lecuire with whom Geneviève Asse collaborates regularly. The books "L'Air", "Les Litres", Hommage à Morandi are shown, illustrated with drypoints and chisels by Geneviève Asse.

1974 Exhibition at Jan Krugier in Geneva. Rainer Michael Mason writes the preface to the catalog.

1975 Personal exhibition at Château de Ratilly, organized by Jeanne and Norbert Pierlot. The catalog includes a text by Jean Leymarie. Composes and illustrates the book “Les Fenêtres”, poems by Silvia Baron Supervielle. Cantini museum in Marseille acquires “Porte Paysage” dated 1961.

1977 Prints Cabinet in Geneva Museum of Art and History presents all of her engraved work. The catalog raisonné is produced by Rainer Michael Mason, director of the Prints Cabinet; it also includes texts by Jacques Lassaigne, François Chapon and Charles Juliet. Composes and illustrates “Haeres” with poet André Frénaud.

1978 The exhibition of her complete engraved work is shown again at Paris municipal museum of modern art by Daniel Marchesseau who is the curator. Geneviève Asse donates around a hundred of her engravings and all of her books to the French National Library. The Gobelins Manufacture weaves an “Ouverture II” tapestry. The Sèvres Manufacture carries out several of her porcelain projects. Jacques Lassaigne, director of Paris municipal museum of modern art, presents the exhibition “L'Ecole de Paris : 1956 - 1976” showing 13 painters including Geneviève Asse, in Italy, Spain and Poland.

1979 Travels to Venezuela while a personal exhibition including paintings and works on paper is held at Eugenio Mendoza Foundation in Caracas. The catalog is prefaced by Germain Viatte, director of National Museum of modern art.

1980 Nicole Barbier, curator of Rennes Museum of Fine Arts, organizes a major exhibition of drawings by Geneviève Asse, a selection from 1941 to 1979.

1981 Roland Penrose prefaces the catalog of her first solo exhibition in London.

1982 Illustrates the book “Ici en deux”, with poems by André du Bouchet, published by Jacques Quentin in Geneva. Her graphic work and books are exhibited at Henie-Onstad Kunstsenter in Hövikodden, Norway.

1987 Germain Viatte, director of Marseille Museums, organizes an exhibition entitled “Geneviève Asse: paintings 1980-1987” at Cantini Museum. Two large rugs made on behalf of Mobilier National by Lodève Manufacture in 1984 and 1985-86 are also shown.

1988-89 The retrospective of the Paris municipal museum of modern art gathers more than 70 paintings. Under Bernadette Contensou’s responsibility, this exhibition is organized by Françoise Marquet and Dominique Morel. She acquires a family home in Ile aux Moines, in Morbihan Gulf.

Enters Claude Bernard gallery where she exhibits in 1989. Upon request of Jean Bazaine, she creates twelve stained-glass windows for Saint-Dié cathedral.

1993 Travel to Morocco. The Notebook, which always accompanies her, is being filled with this new light.

1995 Rennes Museum of Fine Arts, Frac Bretagne and Bourg-en-Bresse Museum join forces to present her paintings from 1943 to 1995, particularly the large blue canvases from the 1970s to 1995. A catalog is published on this occasion, for which Germain Viatte and Jean-Luc Daval write two texts.

1996 Produces a book of interviews, an intimate work with Silvia Baron Supervielle, “A summer with Geneviève Asse”, published by Editions L’Echoppe in Paris.

1996-98 Works on a set of stained-glass windows with Olivier Debré for Lamballe Collegial  church (Côtes d’Armor, Brittany).

1997 Musée de la Cohue in Vannes shows a selection of works retracing her creation by following the path of decorative arts: “Geneviève Asse, volume and line”.

1998 Rainer Michael Mason draws up a catalog raisonné of her printed work, during the exhibition “Geneviève Asse, the printed work 1942-1997”, at Prints Cabinet, in Geneva Museum of Art and History.

1999 Catherine Putman shows the works of Geneviève Asse at various international fairs, such as FIAC, Basel, Madrid...

Participates in “Art in chapels”exhibition in Saint-Nicolas-des-Eaux (Morbihan, Brittany)

2000 Marwan Hoss gallery in Paris shows a personal exhibition entitled “Small formats, 1943-2000”.

2001 Participates in the exhibition of the new acquisitions of Centre Pompidou’s Graphic Art Cabinet.

2003 A tribute to Geneviève Asse is held at Rennes Museum of Fine Arts on the occasion of her important donation of 7 historical works, milestones of her artistic career.

2004 Participates in the exhibitions “Catherine Putman éditions, a choice of contemporary prints” at the Louis Moret Foundation in Martigny.

2006 She is named Commander of the Legion of Honor. Exhibition at Quimper Museum of Fine Arts.

2007 Participates in “Samuel Beckett” exhibition at Centre Pompidou.

2009-10 Participates in “Elles@centrepompidou”. Women artists in the collections of the Center Pompidou” at the Centre Pompidou. Exhibition at Rouen Museum of Fine Arts.

2010 Catherine Putman, who has published her engravings since 1990, holds a solo exhibition to Geneviève Asse. She is named Grand Officer of the Legion of Honor.

2012 Donates eleven paintings to Centre Pompidou.

2013 Several exhibitions dedicated to her work mark her 90th birthday.

2014 François Hollande awarded her the title of Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor.

2021 Geneviève Asse dies on August 11 in Paris.