One minute with Bernard Buffet - Galerie de la Présidence

Dear Friends,

We are pleased to welcome you back for this new ‘minute’.
Let’s talk about Bernard Buffet with three works currently on exhibit at our gallery..

Let’s talk about Bernard Buffet

Who hasn’t heard of Bernard Buffet?

Andy Warhol said

in my opinion, the greatest French painter is Bernard Buffet.

Buffet is recognized worldwide as a major artist of French painting in the first half of the 20^th century.

Aged 20, he won the Prix de la Critique which rewards the work of a painter, equivalent to the Prix Goncourt in literature and became the young hope of French painting.

In 1947 he executed his spartan universe with his ascetic characters, his frugal still lifes, painted with an etched hand This graphic sobriety corresponds to an economy of matter dominated by ochres, earthen tones and harmonies of shades where light introduces very personal poetry.

In 1949, Bernard Buffet received the support of the famous collector Maurice Girardin who bequeathed his collection in 1953 allowing Buffet to enter the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris. We will soon have the opportunity to talk about Maurice Girardin, a great fan of Marcel Gromaire.

In 1949 the first annual Buffet exhibition took place at the Drouant-David Gallery, then from 1968 at the Maurice Garnier Gallery. In 1955 he obtained the first place in the referendum organized by Connaissance des Arts designating the ten best painters of the post-war period. It conferred an international reputation to the artist.

Throughout his career, he devoted himself to creating thematic exhibitions, such as the Passion of Christ, the life of Joan of Arc and Dante’s Hell with monumental formats.

According to Lydia Harambourg, author of the ‘Dictionnaire des peintres de l’Ecole de Paris (1945 – 1965)’,