Bernard Buffet – St Tropez

Description

Bernard Buffet, St Tropez is an original colored lithograph from the Bernard Buffet St Tropez Suite. This print is signed in the bottom center and an artist proof is annotated “E.A.” on the lower left. Sorlier 278.

Bernard Buffet was a French Expressionist painter. Best known for his representational work, 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.

Bernard Buffet St Tropez is defined by “dry” straight lines revealing the shape of buildings. Buffet’s buildings in this print depict elongated structures that depict loneliness and despair. He exhibits Paris in a lifeless manner. Buffet shows us the grace in the city’s structure, relying on the importance of drawing, the basis of all great work.

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.

Bernard Buffet, St Tropez