Bernard Buffet – Place Saint Germain Des Pres

Description

Bernard Buffet, Place Saint Germain Des Pres is an original lithograph in seven colors on Arches paper. This print is signed in the lower right and numbered in the lower left. Published by ‘Editions Paris Book Center, New York’. Sorlier 65.

Buffet’s body of work exceeds 8,000 paintings and prints. He was one of the first artists to depict Paris itself in a cubist style, likely due to the oppression of the city during his formative years.

Buffet was born in Paris in 1928 and grew up during the Nazi occupation, enduring the war and years of deprivation, and the experience inspired much of the glum imagery in his work. He excelled in painting and drawing, winning prestigious prizes and attracting attention with a signature style recognizable by thick, angular black lines that outlined his somber themes.

Buffet developed a realist style infused with social criticism, featuring a restrained palette and black outlines. He is best known for his grim “Horror of War” series and myriad streetscapes and interior scenes populated by angular, emotionless figures. Self-portraits, religious scenes, still lifes also figure among his oeuvre, which extends to lithography, engraving, and sculpture. While Buffet continued to enjoy success as a commercial artist until a debilitating illness prompted him to commit suicide, his work fell out of favor among critics in the 1960s and remains relatively unknown.

Although frequently viewed as heavy and foreboding, there is also a level of beauty in the work of Bernard Buffet. His style is defined by “dry” straight lines revealing the shape of buildings and bodies. His works show elongated, emaciated figures and structures and lend a feeling of despair and loneliness. He shows Paris itself, traditionally portrayed as lively and colorful, in a hard and lifeless manner.