Le Toreador

Description

Le Toreador, 1960 by Bernard Buffet is an original litograph in five colors on Arches paper. This print is signed in the lower right and numbered in the lower left. Published by ‘Editions David et Garnier, Paris’, from the edition of 175. Sorlier, 21.

The style of Bernard Buffet 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.

While Le Toreador is  not necessarily considered “pretty”, the desire for a modern ideal created the need for his stark and somber images expressing intense emotion. Buffet’s style focused on older, more conservative statues of art, such as drawing, while playing on the continuous popularity of Existentialism. Buffet’s figures are long, desolate, and solitary, yet at the same time empathetic; and they resonate with the public and critics alike.

Buffet’s paintings are often figurative, graphic, and central in their compositions. A bold rejecter of abstract art altogether, Buffet was a member of the anti-abstraction group L’homme Témoin, or the Witness-Man, which passionately argued for the importance of representational art at a time when abstraction began to dominate the critical conversation. His oeuvre revolved around ideas of art history, death, sexuality, popular culture, and politics while often directly referencing contemporary events and artists. Buffet had an extremely prolific career, painting over 8,000 works and garnering widespread popularity and acclaim, including dozens of international exhibitions and honors such as being inducted into the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1974. Born in Paris, France on July 10, 1928, the artist took his own life after a prolonged battle with Parkinson’s disease on October 4, 1999 in Tourtour, France at the age of 71.