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selected works 18 9 0 â&#x20AC;&#x201C;197 3

Louis ANQUETIN Torse de jeune fille, Juliette Var y – circa 1890

Aristide Maillol Grande baigneuse debout – circa 1900

André Derain Bateaux au port de Collioure – circa 1905

Constantin Brancusi Femme au peigne (or Profil de femme au chignon) – circa 1912

Amedeo Modigliani La Bourguignonne – 1919

Amedeo Modigliani Jeune femme aux macarons – 1918

Chaïm Soutine Le Chemin montant à Cagnes (or Paysage de Cagnes) – circa 1923-1924

Joan MirÓ Gouache-dessin – 1934

Henry Moore Ideas for Upright Internal/External Form – 1948

Henry Moore Maquette for Upright Internal/External Form – 1951

Alexander Calder Number 1 to 5 – 1954

Franz Kline Untitled – circa 1954

Manolo Millares Cuadro 121 – 1960

Maurice Estève Montavent – 1963

Pablo Picasso Nu et musicien assis – 1967

Eduardo Chillida Dibujo tinta – 1973

Louis Anquetin (1861-1932)

Torse de jeune fille, Juliette Var y Torso of a Girl, Juliette Var y

Circa 1890 Gouache on paper Signed lower right L. Anquetin 79.5 x 49.5 cm 31.3 x 19.5 in The authenticity of this gouache was confirmed by the Brame and Lorenceau gallery on 16 February 2018. Provenance Filloux collection, Nice Private collection, Paris R e la t e d w o r k Paris, galerie Brame et Lorenceau, Anquetin, la passion d’être peintre, 26 March-20 April 1991, no. 15, repr. p. 47 and on the cover (an oil on canvas of the same composition, but of smaller size 75.5 x 60.3 cm, held in a private collection in Paris)

Louis Anquetin

A native of Normandy, Anquetin joined the studio

of the painter Léon Bonnat (1833-1922) in Paris in 1882 and soon became friends with Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, accompanying him on his visits to cabarets in Montmartre.

They then both went on to study with the academic artist Fernand Cormon, whose studio became a veritable crucible for young talent, attracting artists such as Émile Bernard and Vincent van Gogh. Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec said that no painter since Manet had been as gifted as Anquetin. This gouache, presented to the public for the first time, is a perfect example of cloisonnisme, of which Louis Anquetin was a leading master. It’s a pictorial technique that consists of painting patches of color separated by a darker line, as in cloisonné enamels or Japanese prints. In this piece, Anquetin used dramatic contrasts to emphasize the young woman’s milky complexion and reinforce the cloisonné principle in the background pattern. The writer Édouard Dujardin, commenting on Anquetin’s work in the 1888 Salon des Indépendants in the Revue indépendante, baptized this new technique cloisonnisme and declared Anquetin its inventor, which brought the artist a considerable recognition that only grew over time.

Louis Anquetin’s studio in 1891-1892, with the Portrait de Juliette Vary on the wall.

Louis Anquetin

Torse de jeune fille, Juliette Vary, circa 1890

A year later, Anquetin received further admiration for his works in the impressionist and synthetist exhibition at the Café Volpini, which was organized by his friend Paul Gauguin. That same year, Félix Fénéon commented on the « teintes plates et intenses [et les] contours infranchissables » (“flat, intense colors and the absolute contours”) of Anquetin’s paintings. Torse de jeune-fille, Juliette Vary underscores the timeless and delicate qualities of the model, to whom Anquetin was much attached. It shares traits with japonisme: the dark wood of the tree and the exotic flowers in the background, the hair tied back low on the neck, and the marked use of cloisonné. Louis Anquetin, Torse de

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec,

jeune fille, oil on canvas,

Juliette Vary, 1888, Albi,

75.5 x 60.3 cm, Paris,

Musée Toulouse-Lautrec.

private collection.

The model for this gouache was Juliette Vary, a young woman who lived in the same street as Toulouse-Lautrec. He noticed her and asked her parents to let her pose for him. He did several portraits of her, beginning in 1888, when she was 17 years old. She became Anquetin’s favorite model as well. ––

Aristide Maillol (1861-1944)

Grande baigneuse debout Large Standing Bather

Model conceived circa 1900 Bronze with nuanced brown patina This cast made circa 1940-1942 Monogrammed on the base M Foundry mark Alexis.Rudier Fondeur Paris on the back of the base H 76 cm (29.9 in) The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Olivier Lorquin, expert on Aristide Maillol. Provenance Private collection, France, acquired from Eugène Rudier in September, 1945 Private collection, Paris, by descent from the above L i t e r at u r e Waldemar George, Aristide Maillol et l’âme de la sculpture, éditions Ides et Calendes, Neuchâtel, 1965, p. 129 (another cast)

Aristide Maillol

Maillol created Grande baigneuse debout in

1900 in boxwood. It was shown in 1902 by Ambroise Vollard, and the art dealer bought it from the artist. It is mentioned in a contract made between Vollard and Maillol on 10 September 1902: “a large statue in boxwood – a woman standing with her arm behind her head – a unique work – original.” The history of this boxwood original is well-known; in 1905, it belonged to Gustave Fayet; it then went to Vollard’s gallery and then to Druet’s. By 1908, it belonged to Count Harry Kessler, and in 1933, it joined the collection of Oskar Reinhart, and today it belongs in the Sammlung Oskar Reinhart am Römerholz in Winterthur. Maillol made a plaster mold of the wooden statue for an edition in terra-cotta and one in bronze cast by Claude Valsuani. In 1913, the Kunsthalle in Mannheim acquired from Vollard a bronze of the Grande baigneuse debout. The bronze sculpture of the bather bought by the Mannheim museum in 1913 is another version, and was sand cast by Bingen and Costenoble (height 75 cm – 29.5 in).

Aristide Maillol

Grande baigneuse debout, circa 1900

Maillol made several versions of Grande baigneuse debout in plaster, with and without drapery, and altering both the face and the base. Our example of Grande baigneuse debout was acquired in September 1945 by a well-known connoisseur directly from Eugène Rudier, Aristide Maillol’s founder and dealer. Rudier developed regular commercial relationship with the buyer, who also bought at the same time another Maillol bronze, a cast of L’Île de France (no. 2/6). Eugène was the son of Alexis Rudier, who started the foundry in Paris in 1874, first in the rue Charlot and then in the rue de Saintonge. When he died in 1897, his wife and his son Eugène took over the business, but kept the “Alexis Rudier” signature.

From 1902 on, Eugène worked for Rodin, and when Rodin died in 1917, he became the Rodin Museum’s exclusive founder. From 1905 on, Eugène also began doing castings for Maillol. In 1934, Eugène Rudier moved the foundry to new studios at Malakoff. His position as the exclusive founder for the Rodin Museum and the numerous commissions he received from the state for the 1937 International Exposition put the foundry in a prominent position in the field and allowed him to employ some forty people. At this time, Eugène Rudier also became Maillol’s exclusive dealer. Our bronze has been kept in the same family since it was acquired from Rudier in 1945, one year after the artit’s death, and this is the first time that it is offered on the market. This cast was made between 1940 and 1942, this has been confirmed by Olivier Lorquin, expert on and beneficiary of the artist. ––

André Derain (1880-1954)

Bateaux au port de Collioure Boats in Collioure Harbor

Circa 1905 Oil on canvas Signed lower right Derain

March 1966, no. 23, illustrated; this exhibition later travelled to Munich, Haus der Kunst, March-May 1966

46.3 x 38 cm 18.2 x 15 in

Recklinghausen, Städtische Kunsthalle, Zauber des Lichtes, JuneJuly 1967, no. 52

Provenance Galerie Louis Manteau, Brussels Georges Daelemans collection, Brussels, acquired before 1952 Private collection, Brussels Christie’s London, 4 February 2015, lot no. 3 Private collection, Brussels Exhibitions Paris, Musée national d’Art moderne, L’École de Paris dans les collections belges, July-October 1959, no. 38 Paris, Galerie Charpentier, Les Fauves, 1962, no. 33 Paris, Musée national d’Art moderne, Le Fauvisme français et les débuts de l’Expressionisme allemand, January-

Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Academy, Derain, August-September 1967, no. 16, illustrated; this exhibition later travelled to London, Royal Academy, September-November 1967 Mechelen, Cultureel Centrum Burgemeester Antoon Spinoy, Fauvisme in de Europese kunst, September-November 1969 Charleroi, Palais des Beaux-Arts, La grande époque de Montparnasse, January-February 1973, no. 18 L i t e r at u r e S. Whitfield, Fauvism, New York, 1992 M. Kellermann, André Derain, Catalogue Raisonné de l’œuvre peint, Paris, 1992, no. 51, p. 32

André Derain

As soon as he arrived in Collioure in 1905, Matisse

fell under the town’s spell. He was amazed by the intensity of the luminous beauty radiating from the small fishing port; it was a view that would also enchant Derain, Braque, and Vlaminck. Henri Matisse wrote: « Il n’y a pas en France de ciel plus beau que celui de Collioure [...]. Je n’ai qu’à ouvrir les volets de ma chambre et j’ai toutes les couleurs de la Méditerranée chez moi. » (“Nowhere in France is there a sky more beautiful than that in Collioure […] I only need to open my shutters, and I have all the colors of the Mediterranean in my room.”) The town and the surrounding region became one of Fauvism’s signature subjects.

In 1905, Derain’s parents were pressuring him to give up painting, which threw him into a period of deep loneliness and discouragement. Matisse’s invitation, in July of that year, to visit him in Collioure offered him a valued escape. Together, they painted the landscapes around the town, inspired by the warm light that emphasized the vivid colors of the countryside of the south of France. They abandoned then fully the conventions and traditional rules of coloration. Bateaux au port de Collioure is one of a series of foundational works that Derain did in Collioure in 1905. These works are composed principally in primary colors and executed with thick, determined brushstrokes.

Collioure harbor.

Bateaux au port de Collioure shows a view of the Collioure harbor, which Derain painted several times. The masts of the boats, arranged in long, vibrant orange lines, meld into the blue of the sea. The boats, with the sea reflected in their hulls, seem to be in motion, and you can almost feel the effort it takes the people on the seafront to keep on going under the oppressive heat. Derain seems to have painted this work quickly with a vibrant and assured attention, applying the colors directly from the tube onto the canvas in impulsive strokes. The ochre of the canvas plays an integral role in the composition and emphasizes the bursts of color. Though Derain and Matisse were very close in 1905, they were not the only influences on each other’s work at the time. Derain’s work, in particular, was enriched by his friendship with the painter Maurice de Vlaminck, and their encounters were intel-

André Derain

Bateaux au port de Collioure, circa 1905

lectually stimulating for them both. Derain and Vlaminck had gone together to see the 1901 Van Gogh exhibition at Galerie Bernheim, which had a strong influence on the work of the Fauves. It was at that exhibition that Derain introduced Vlaminck to Matisse, and thus the core trio of the Fauvists was concretized under the auspices of van Gogh. N ote

1 André Derain, letter to Maurice de Vlaminck.

However, this initial connection didn’t last very long – in 1901, Derain began his military service, and Vlaminck, who stayed in the country in Chatou, fell out of touch with Matisse for a while, though Derain continued to write frequently to Vlaminck about painting and about color. In 1901, he wrote: « Quant à la peinture, je suis conscient que la période réaliste a cessé. » (“As for painting, clearly, the realist period is over.”). It was Derain’s way of expressing his conviction that a new era for painters had begun. When he finished his military service in 1904, he went to join his friend Vlaminck in Chatou. That same year, Matisse was exhibiting his paintings with Ambroise Vollard, and he introduced his dealer to

Derain. Vollard was deeply impressed by his work; he arranged a studio for Derain in 1905 and then commissioned him a series of paintings of London. A new consciousness guided their experiments from that moment on; informed by an essential primitivism, it was above all charged with psychological engagement, intentional un-learning, and a return to a certain candor that freed them from conventions and allowed them to approach painting with a new eye. They remained avidly interested in making new pictorial discoveries and in sharing them in new encounters. This new communal consciousness and the collaborations and exchanges between artists were determining elements of Fauvism. They brought an innovative optimism to the mix, an optimism that, without breaking with tradition, liberated a deep, personal creativity. In 1905, Derain stayed in Collioure from 5 July to 28 August and created a large and iconic body of Fauvist work, including some 30 paintings and 20 drawings. –– « En effet, ce pays-ci [...] ce sont des bateaux, des voiles blanches, des barques multicolores. Mais, surtout, c’est la lumière. Une lumière blonde, dorée qui supprime les ombres : [...] Tout ce que j’ai fait jusqu’ici me semble stupide. » 1 (“Indeed, this country [...] it is boats, white sails, multicoloured boats. But, above all, it is the light. A blonde, golden light which erases shadows: [...] Everything I’ve done so far seems stupid to me.” ) 1

André Derain, Portrait d’Henri Matisse, 1905, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art.

André Derain

Constantin Brancusi (1876-1957)

Femme au peigne (or Profil de femme au chignon) Woman with a Comb (or Profile of a Woman with a Hair Bun)

Circa 1912 Gouache on paper Signed lower right C. Brancusi 49 x 37 cm 19.3 x 14.5 in The authenticity of this work was confirmed by Margit Rowell, on 4 January, 2018. Provenance H.R.H. the Maharajah of Indore, Yeshwant Rao, called Rao Henri-Pierre Roché, Paris Private collection, Paris, by descent Private collection, Paris Exhibitions This work has been requested by Doïna Lemny, “Attachée de Conservation” at Musée national d’Art moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris, and curator for the exhibition Brancusi, la sublimation de la forme, to be held at Bozar in Brussels from 1 October 2019 to 12 January 2020.

Constantin Brancusi

he delicate gouache of a bowed female head Femme au peigne is a rare painted work on paper by Brancusi, whose entire non-sculptural œuvre numbers less than two hundred pieces, primarily portraits of women and nudes. He almost never drew preliminary studies for his sculptures, but most are independent aesthetic explorations. Brancusi prized these works enough to show them in formal exhibitions, first at gallery Brummer in Paris and later in New York. Although Brancusi’s paintings and drawings demonstrate an approach to form entirely consistent with his sculptural œuvre, these graphic media encouraged a far greater gestural liberty than wood, stone, or bronze. Femme au peigne was painted circa 1912, in the midst of a brief, decisive period in which Brancusi attained the elemental purity of form that would define his signature modernist achievement for his entire career. As in his sculpture, Brancusi often painted and drew in series of variations, with a marked tendency toward simplification as he moved through a theme. “In his drawings, Margit Rowell has written, Brancusi provides significant clues as to his vision and his priorities” 1 The present gouache is one of three paintings and at least three drawings in which Brancusi explored the motif of a young woman in profile, her gaze cast downward, her head and neck forming a single, smooth arc. In 1910 Brancusi met Margit Pogany, a young Hungarian woman which became his muse for the following years. He made various versions of her sculpted portrait, among them, a marble, Mademoiselle Pogany, version I, from 1912 in the

Mademoiselle Pogany, version I, 1912, white marble, limestone block, Philadelphia, Philadelphia Museum of Art.

collection of the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Our gouache, painted circa 1912, was probably from the same inspiration. This posture of self-absorption recalls the sculptor’s Muses series that he started early 1910’s, searching to reach the essence of the woman figure, beginning with Femme se regardant dans un miroir of 1909, which he radically re-carved six years later as the notorious Princesse X. « C’est la femme, la synthèse même de la femme, c’est l’éternel féminin de Goethe, réduit à son essence. » (“It is ‘Woman,’ the very synthesis of Woman, it is the eternal female of Goethe, reduced to her essence.”) 2, he explained of the latter work, infuriated when Picasso linked it to a phallus. In the present gouache, Brancusi has rendered the model’s head and neck in pale, luminous hues that suggest the way that skin – or marble – catches the light. The curly black hair, piled atop the head, provides a striking contrast in both tone and graphic incident.

Constantin Brancusi

N otes

1 Constantin Brancusi, exh. cat. Philadelphia Museum of Art, 1995, p. 287. 2 Ibid., p. 138.

Femme au peigne (or Profil de femme au chignon), circa 1912

This gouache belonged to Henri-Pierre Roché who was a French collector and art dealer, as well as an art critic and writer. He was a key figure in the Parisian bohemian literary and artistic world of Montmartre and Montparnasse, and his articles appeared in the most incisive journals, such as the Ermitage and Vers et Prose. He was a friend of Guillaume Apollinaire, Max Jacob, and Blaise Cendrars, as well as of many visual artists, including le Douanier Rousseau, Brancusi, Soutine, Braque, and Diego Rivera. He introduced Gertrude and Leo Stein to modern art when, beginning in 1905, he sold them paintings by Picasso. He had a romantic relationship with Marie Laurencin when she was very young and was her first collector. He introduced her to Paul Cassirer and Paul Rosenberg, and, in Berlin, to Alfred Flechtheim, who open doors for her that led to her success. And it was him, who, in 1917, sold her painting Le Zèbre to the millionaire lawyer John Quinn. That same year, he was sent as part of a diplomatic mission to New York, where he met Gaston Gallimard, Man Ray, Picabia, and Marcel Duchamp, with whom he remained friends; together they founded the Dada review The Blind Man, in which Duchamp theorized the readymade. He went back to New York in 1920; during that trip John Quinn commissioned him to create a collection including, among others, Brancusi, Matisse, and Picasso, which gave him the opportunity to learn all the secrets of the art dealer’s trade.

he was able, with Duchamp’s help, to buy the 30 pieces by Brancusi that were in his collection and re-sell them in the following years. After the death of his mother in 1929, Henri-Pierre Roché became the confidant of Yeshwant Rao, known as Bala, the son of H.R.H. the Maharajah of Indore, who lived in Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Roché had met the young prince several years earlier when he’d served as an intermediary for a full-length portrait commissioned from Boutet de Monvel. He took charge of the prince’s artistic education and accompanied him on his travels. He also introduced him to Brancusi, whose “birds” series immediately intrigued him. In 1932, Roché suggested a black marble version of L’Oiseau, which the prince bought for the considerable sum of 250 000 francs. In 1934, Roché took Bala and his young wife to Brancusi’s studio, where he viewed the sculptor’s plans for Le Temple de l’amour, in which the couple’s collected works would be positioned around a small body of water. The works included the black marble L’Oiseau, another that Brancusi would do in white marble, a third in bronze, and the Colonne du baiser. The death of the maharani the following year unfortunately turned the prince away from the project. ––

Upon returning to Paris, he reconnected with old friends, in particular, Marcel Duchamp, but also Gris, Picasso, Brancusi, Braque, Marie Laurencin, Cocteau, and Erik Satie, whom he introduced to Gertrude Stein. When John Quinn died in 1924,

Bernard Boutet de Monvel, H.R.H. the Maharadjah of Indore, 1934, oil on canvas, private collection.

Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920)

La Bourguignonne The Burgundian

1919 Oil on canvas Signed upper right modigliani 55 x 38 cm 21.6 x 15 in The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Marc Restellini and it will be included in the forthcoming Modigliani’s Catalogue Raisonné being prepared by Institut Restellini. This work has been requested for the exhibition organized by the Albertina Museum in Vienna for the centenary of Modigliani’s death: “Modigliani and Picasso - the Primitivist Revolution” (18 September 2020-10 January 2021, curator Marc Restellini). Provenance Leopold Zborovski, Paris Roger Dutilleul collection, Paris (acquired in 1919 for 250 francs) Gérard Masurel collection, Paris, by descent from the above Private collection, Switzerland, by descent from the above

Exhibitions Paris, galerie Montaigne, Modigliani, 11-29 December 1920 (17 paintings and 15 drawings), no. 27 Paris, galerie des Beaux-Arts, Peintres instinctifs, naissance de l’expressionnisme, December 1935January 1936, no. 78 Paris, galerie de France, Modigliani, 21 December 1945-31 January1946, no. 38 Paris, Musée du Luxembourg, L’ange au visage grave, 23 October 20022 March 2003, no. 105 ; then Milan, Palazzo Real, 3 March-12 July 2003, no. 70, repr. New York, Helly Nahmad Gallery, Amedeo Modigliani, a Bohemian myth, 4-22 November 2005, no. 12 Rome, Complesso des Vittoriano, Modigliani, 24 February-20 June 2006, no. 33, repr. Madrid, Thyssen-Bornemisza, Modigliani y su tiempo, 5 February15 May 2008, no. 85 Osaka, National Museum of Arts, Modigliani et le primitivisme, 1 July15 September 2008, no. 51, repr. Bonn, Kunst und Ausstellungshalle der Bundesrepublik Deutschland, Amedeo Modigliani, 17 April30 August 2009, repr. on the back cover.

Lille Métropole Musée d’Art Moderne (LaM), Amedeo Modigliani, l’œil intérieur, 27 February-5 June 2016, (traveling exhibition in partnership with LaM and RMN-Grand Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts of Budapest, l’Atheneum Museum, Finnish National Gallery of Helsinki), no. 94, repr. p. 132 L i t e r at u r e A. Watt, “Notes from Paris” in Apollo, vol. XXIII, no. 134, février, 1936, p. 108 Catalogue de reproductions en couleurs de la peinture de 1860 à 1949, Paris, Unesco, 1949, p. 6241 A. Pfannstiel, in Modigliani et son œuvre. Étude critique et catalogue raisonné, Paris, La Bibliothèque des Arts, coll. “Souvenirs et documents”, 1956, no. 308 G. di San Lazzaro, Modigliani: Portraits, Paris, Hazan, 1957, p. 13 J. Lanthemann, Modigliani 18841920. Catalogue raisonné, sa vie, son œuvre complet, son art, Barcelone, Gráficas Condal, 1970, no. 228, p. 221

Amedeo Modigliani

Much has been said and much has been written

on Modigliani, an emblematic figure of the School of Paris, the avant-garde movement based in Montparnasse just before the Great War. An artist “maudit”, dead at the early age of 36 from meningitis, this Bohemian hero has become an icon of modern art. Enamored of philosophy and poetry, Les Chants de Maldoror always in his pocket, he spent his time in the galleries of the Louvre and the Trocadéro contemplating Egyptian bas-reliefs and the divinities of Angkor. An immigrant from Livorno, Jewish and tubercular, marginalized among the marginalized, Modigliani came to Paris in 1909 after a classical education in Florence. The son of a failed bourgeois banking family, he arrived in Paris with family money. Because of his talent as a painter and his strong cultural background, he was readily accepted into the Parisian avant-garde, and he soon got to know actors, musicians, painters, poets, and patrons. Picasso, Cocteau, Soutine, Derain, Diego Rivera, and Kisling were all at various times his models. Picasso introduced him to Paul Guillaume, who became his main dealer. With him, Modigliani developed his taste for primitivism and tribal art. His passion for non-western art led him to forge a clearly recognizable, highly individual style. In search of a universal beauty, his melancholy touch and the poetry of his lines gave life to his slender faces and their silent gazes, without pupils, that nonetheless speak the depths of their souls. La Bourguignonne is one of those enigmatic portraits to which Modigliani held the secret. Also called Jeune fille joufflue (Bonne Bourguignonne), it’s the smallest version of a large painting currently

Amedeo Modigliani in his studio, circa 1915.

held in the collections of the Minneapolis Institute of Art. Extremely delicate, it is one of the many portraits that he did of common, anonymous, simple people, from whom he drew inspiration, plumbing their inner natures. Turned slightly ¾, this portrait was most likely done after his return from Nice in May 1919, a period of the artist’s greatest work. The predominately green background is worked in chiaroscuro around the subject, with the lightest and most vigorous touches on the left side giving the composition its depth.

Amedeo Modigliani

NOTES

La Bourguignonne, 1919

The hair is drawn up behind and held in a small, black knot, leaving the broad forehead clear, with strands of brown hair hanging down over the temple. The fine nose is lightly drawn above a small mouth with red, outlined lips. The cheeks are full and flushed, and the contour of the face is discretely underscored by a black line that reveals a slight double-chin. The long, graceful neck descends into a V-necked sweater, somber in color, which serves as a base for this admirable composition.

Modigliani had reused a canvas on which there was already a sketch of Jeanne Hébuterne ; a painting of the same dimensions is held today in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.

Roger Dutilleul saw a mystic dimension in Modigliani’s portraits. Like those of a totemic figure, the deep, pupil-less blue-green eyes give face the air of a sacred mask, leaving the viewer confronted with the model’s soul revealed in her primitive expression. Throughout his short career, Modigliani was always in search of the universal beauty of the soul, so characteristic of the Egyptian figures that he liked to study in the Louvre with his companion at the time, the poet Anna Akhmatova. Radiography of the painting shows that for this portrait,

La Bourguignonne is one of the very first paintings that Roger Dutilleul bought from Léopold Zborowski, who was Modigliani’s dealer from 1917 on. A poet of Polish origin, Zborowski had come to Paris two years earlier to study literature and art history. He offered Modigliani 500 francs a month and painting materials in exchange for exclusive rights over his production. Dutilleul bought four other paintings from him (Madame Zborowska au bougeoir, Madame Hebuterne au chignon de trois quarts à gauche, Mme Hébuterne au foulard rouge, Le Niçois à la casquette) before accepting to pose for Modigliani on 16, 17 and 18 June 1919. Dutilleul paid him 500 francs for the portrait.1

Roger Dutilleul, a collector and supporter of the avant-garde, was one of the four biggest collectors of Modigliani’s work during his lifetime; Paul Alexandre, Jonas Netter, and Albert Barnes were the other three.

1 Sotheby’s Paris sale, 4 December 2013, lot 11.

Roger Dutilleul kept a hand-written inventory of all the pieces he bought from each artist whose work he collected, including Modigliani’s. The painting presented here is listed in that inventory with the description “jeune fille joufflue (bonne bourguignonne)” (”Chubby-Cheeked Young Woman (Burgundian Maid)”) along with its format “10F” and the buying price of “250” francs. At times Dutilleul resold works from his constantly evolving collection or made exchanges with various dealers, but he didn’t do either with La Bourguignonne. He had a particular affection for it and kept it all his Radiography of

Jeanne Hébuterne,

La Bourguignonne

1918, Jerusalem,

with a sketch of

Israel Museum.

Jeanne Hébuterne.

Amedeo Modigliani

life. In several photos from the 1950s of his apartment at 48 bis rue de Monceau, La Bourguignonne can be seen among other works by the artist, placed on the mantelpiece in the dining room.2

the framer, and he offered to sell me one, which I was delighted to buy for 100 francs.3 After that, I bought several from Zborowski, until there came a time when he had no more to sell to me, and so suggested that the painter do my portrait. I accepted, with some hesitation, and Modigliani came to see me. He stood before my Picassos and Braques and cried, ‘I’m ten years behind them!’ It wasn’t easy to reassure him. He completed the portrait in three sittings, in format 40, happy not to have to pay for a model. I paid Zborowski 500 francs, which he divided in five: three parts for himself and his large family, one for his associate, and one for the painter.”

These were the paintings that Dutilleul was referring to when he mentioned, in a 1948 interview in the journal Art présent, his discovery of and encounter with the artist upon returning from the front in 1917: “That’s also how my relationship with Modigliani began. I’d seen a couple of his paintings in the window of Paul Guillaume’s gallery. The artist was completely unknown to me, but I found the works very striking. A little bit later, I went by Lepoutre’s,

And that is how the first Modiglianis found their way into the collection of one of the greatest defenders of modern art. Historians estimate that around 35 of Modigliani’s paintings and some 26 of his drawings passed through Dutilleul’s hands. Dutilleul collected works by more than 57 artists, but Modigliani had a special place in his collection. Given that Modigliani’s production was relatively modest, the number that passed through Dutilleul’s hands represents about ten percent of the artist’s complete output, which is considerable. Roger Dutilleul bought almost all of his Modiglianis between 1918 and 1925, though his last purchase was in 1941, when he bought a gouache on paper titled Teresa.4 Roger Dutilleul was born into a bourgeois family, and he lived off investments of his family money. Having a taste for the classical, he wasn’t predestined to take an interest in the avant-garde, and yet... He was a client of Kahnweiler’s gallery from its opening in 1907; he began by buying works by the fauves, including Derain, Vlaminck, Van Dongen, and Friesz. Then, becoming seduced by Roger Dutilleul’s dining room, circa 1951-1956, with La Bourguignonne.

Amedeo Modigliani

NOTES

2 Photos taken by Willy Maywald. 3 Editor’s note: Tête de jeune fille. 4 In the LaM collection, Museum

La Bourguignonne, 1919

the cubists, he acquired works by Picasso and Braque – the paintings that Modigliani admired when he came to do the portrait of his patron. Kahnweiler gratefully acknowledged Dutilleul’s role in relation to artists and dealers: “A gallery, its painters and its owner, can survive with very few collectors, three or four, but they must be true, faithful friends. Of the most important in France, Roger Dutilleul has been fervent collector from the first.”5

of Modern Art, Villeneuve d’Ascq. 5 Interview with

For Kahnweiler, “Dutilleul was a collector guided by his instinct. He wasn’t a methodical buyer. He bought cubist painters and not cubism.” For instance, he

Kahnweiler in 1955.

was never interested in Juan Gris, despite Kahnweiler’s insistence, and preferred Braque, Picasso, and Léger. Guided by his instinct and his freedom of taste, he created an eclectic collection, bringing together, among others, Modigliani, Soutine, Klee, Miro, Kandinsky, Picasso and Braque. His collection was one of the most important of the era, ranking with those of Serguei Chtchoukine, Gertrude and Leo Stein, Hermann Rupf, and Wilhelm Uhde. Having no children, Dutilleul divided his collection among his nephews, the children of his sister Françoise, the wife of Jules Masurel. His nephew Jean Masurel, who shared his uncle’s passion, inherited the largest part of the collection in 1956. In 1979, Geneviève and Jean Masurel gave their impressive collection, including fourteen Modiglianis, to the city of Lille. This gift initiated the creation of the modern art museum of Villeneuve d’Ascq, which opened in 1983. Roger Dutilleul played a fundamental role in the transmission of Modigliani’s work. Not only did he pass his passion on to his family, allowing them to acquire the artist’s works directly from the Parisian market, but he also contributed to its public visibility through his generous loans to various private and public exhibitions. Up to the end of his life, Dutilleul, who was a discreet man, always responded favorably to the requests of institutions. This is the first time that this masterpiece of modern art has been offered on the market since Dutilleul acquired it 1919. We would like particularly to thank for its kind collaboration Marc Restellini, who is currently working on the catalogue raisonné of Amedeo Modigliani’s painted works. ––

Amedeo Modigliani, Portrait de Roger Dutilleul, 1919.

Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920)

Jeune femme aux macarons Young woman with macaroons

1918 Oil on canvas Signed upper left modigliani 46 x 33 cm 18.1 x 13 in The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by Marc Restellini and it will be included in the forthcoming Modigliani’s Catalogue Raisonné being prepared by Institut Restellini. This work has been requested for the exhibition organized by the Albertina Museum in Vienna for the centenary of Modigliani’s death: “Modigliani and Picasso - the Primitivist Revolution” (18 September 2020-10 January 2021, curator Marc Restellini). Provenance Galerie Van Leer, Paris Roger Dutilleul collection, Paris, acquired for 2 000 francs in 1922 Laurent Delhief collection, acquired from the above c. 1950 Private collection, France Galerie Cazeau-Béraudière, Paris Private collection, Switzerland

Exhibitions

L i t e r at u r e

Paris, galerie Manzi et Joyant, La jeune Peinture française (followed by Rétrospective Modigliani), 17 June4 July 1920, no. 8, under the title Portrait de fillette.

R. Barotte, “Monsieur Dutilleul, un dénicheur d’artistes”, Plaisir de France, February 1954, repr. p. 27 on a photography of R. Dutilleul’s appartment.

Tokyo, galerie des Arts, Modigliani, Utrillo, Kisling, August-September 1980, no. 19, repr.

J.-A. Cartier, “Modigliani, l’homme, l’artiste”, Le Jardin des arts, May 1958, p. 422, repr. under the title Portrait de femme.

Tokyo, Machida Department Store, L’École de Paris, les grands maîtres qui ont passé leur jeunesse à Paris, August-September 1981, no. 49, repr. Takasaki, Gunma Museum of Modern Art, L’École de Paris “Les Peintres de la tristesse mélancolique et de la poésie éternelle”, October-November 1984, no. 10, rep. Kasama, Nichido Museum of Art, Modigliani et ses amis, SeptemberNovember 1988, no. 5, repr. Tokyo, Sapporo, Osaka, Shimane, Yamaguchi, Amedeo Modigliani, 2007, no. 92, rep. coul., p. 137. Helsinki, Ateneum Art Museum, Amedeo Modigliani, l’œil intérieur, October 2016-February 2017

Jeanne Modigliani, Amedeo Modigliani, senza leggenda, Milan, 1958, pl. 53, repr. p. 53, under the title Ritratto. J. Lanthemann, Modigliani 18841920, Catalogue raisonné, Sa vie, son œuvre complet, son art, 1970, no. 264, p. 230, repr. Listed in Roger Dutilleul’s inventory under no. 17 as “Tête de jeune femme (bandeau macarons)” R e la t e d w o r k Arthur Pfannstiel, L’Art et la Vie, Modigliani, éditions Marcel Seheur, Paris, 1929, p. 76 (preparatory drawing)

Amedeo Modigliani

eune femme aux macarons was done in 1918, a period of the artist’s greatest work. The predominately blue background is worked in chiaroscuro around the subject with large and vigorous brushstrokes. The style of this painting can also be described as “mannerist”, evoking the influence of Italian Renaissance Art. From his childhood, Modigliani had travelled across Italy with his mother. In 1902, he studied in Florence and the following year in Venice. He also visited Sienna and Naples where he immersed himself in the Classical tradition. 16th Century Italian painting became his prime influence. This painting possesses the simplicity and purity of works from the Quattrocento such as those by Carpaccio, Sassetta and Simone Martini, marked by arabesques with fluid contours, elongated proportions and an extreme attention to facial details. L’Italianita or rather “the totally Tuscan elegance” that Severini saw in Modigliani’s portraits is particularly apparent in his late works such as Jeune femme aux macarons. The forms are less sculpted, the shapes less geometric, the pictorial layer more fine and smooth than in works prior to 1917. The arrangement of the model’s hair is the painting’s distinctive element; the hair is pulled back, leaving a few short strands in the middle of her large, light forehead, and a braid coiled into a round, the «macaron», covers the young woman’s right ear. Her pose hides the macaron over her left ear.

Amedeo Modigliani in his studio, circa 1915.

Amedeo Modigliani

Jeune femme aux macarons, 1918

The fine nose is strongly drawn above a small mouth with red, outlined lips. The long, graceful neck descends into a V-necked sweater, somber in color, which serves as a base for this admirable composition. As for the gaze of Modigliani’s portraits, he himself admitted he borrowed eyes with no pupils from Cézanne’s portraits. He confided once to his friend Soutine: “Cézanne’s faces, like beautiful ancient statues, do not have a gaze. Mine, on the other hand, do. Mine are always looking even if I felt I should not give them pupils; however, like Cézanne’s faces, they only express a silent approval of all that they experience.” 1

NOTES

1 Quoted by Walter Schmalenbach, “Portraits” in Modigliani L’ange au visage grave, exhibition

Throughout his short career, Modigliani was always in search of the universal beauty of the soul, so characteristic of the Egyptian figures that he liked to study in the Louvre, or African sculptures that he could admire with his friends Paul Guillaume’s, André Derain or Maurice de Vlaminck

catalogue p. 35.

Roger Dutilleul, a collector and supporter of the avant-garde, was one of the four biggest collectors of Modigliani’s work during his lifetime with Paul Alexandre, Jonas Netter, and Albert Barnes.

Roger Dutilleul in his appartment, circa 1954..

In a 1948 interview in the journal Art présent, Dutilleul recounts his discovery of and encounter with the artist upon returning from the front in 1917: “That’s also how my relationship with Modigliani began. I’d seen a couple of his paintings in the window of Paul Guillaume’s gallery. The artist was completely unknown to me, but I found the works very striking. A little bit later, I went by Lepoutre’s, the framer, and he offered to sell me one, which I was delighted to buy for 100 francs. After that, I bought several from Zborowski, until there came a time when he had no more to sell to me, and so suggested that the painter

Amedeo Modigliani

the 1950s of his apartment at 48 bis rue de Monceau, Jeune femme aux macarons can be seen among other works by the artist, placed on the mantelpiece in the dining room. 2

do my portrait. I accepted, with some hesitation, and Modigliani came to see me. He stood before my Picassos and Braques and cried, ‘I’m ten years behind them!’ It wasn’t easy to reassure him. He completed the portrait, in format 40, in three sittings, happy not to have to pay for a model. I paid Zborowski 500 francs, which he divided in five: three parts for himself and his large family, one for his associate, and one for the painter.” Roger Dutilleul bought Jeune femme aux macarons in 1922 from the van Leer Gallery at 84 rue Notre-Dame des Champs. Dutilleul bought his first Modiglianis from Zborowski, and it was also through him that Dutilleul accepted to pose for the artist on June 16, 17, and 18, 1919, as is detailed in his handwritten inventory. Roger Dutilleul kept a hand-written inventory of all the pieces he bought from each artist whose work he collected, including Modigliani’s. The painting presented here is listed in that inventory under number 17, with the description “tête de jeune femme (bandeau macarons)” along with its format, “8F,” and the buying price of “2 000” francs. Dutilleul, who liked to keep his collection constantly evolving, held onto the portrait Jeune femme aux macarons until the 1950s, when he sold it to Laurent Delhief, recording his name in the inventory on the same line as the work’s title. In several photos from

Historians estimate that around 35 of Modigliani’s paintings and some 26 of his drawings passed through Dutilleul’s hands. Dutilleul collected works by more than 57 artists, but Modigliani had a special place in his collection. Given that Modigliani’s production was relatively modest, the number that passed through Dutilleul’s hands represents about ten percent of the artist’s complete output, which is considerable. Roger Dutilleul bought almost all of his Modiglianis between 1918 and 1925, though his last purchase was in 1941, when he bought a gouache on paper titled Teresa. 3 Roger Dutilleul was born into a bourgeois family, and he lived off investments of his family money. Having a taste for the classical, he wasn’t predestined to take an interest in the avant-garde, and yet... He was a client of Kahnweiler’s gallery from its opening in 1907; he began by buying works by the fauves, including Derain, Vlaminck, Van Dongen, and Friesz. Then, becoming seduced by the cubists, he acquired works by Picasso and Braque – the paintings that Modigliani admired when he came to do the portrait of his patron. Kahnweiler gratefully acknowledged Dutilleul’s role in relation to artists and dealers: “A gallery, its painters and its owner, can survive with very few collectors, three or four, but they must be true, faithful friends. Of the most important in France, Roger Dutilleul has been fervent collector from the first.” 4 For Kahnweiler: “Dutilleul was a collector guided by his instinct. He wasn’t a methodical buyer. He bought cubist painters and not cubism.” For instance, he was never interested in Juan Gris, despite Kahnwei-

Amedeo Modigliani

Jeune femme aux macarons, 1918

ler’s insistence, and preferred Braque, Picasso, and Léger. Guided by his instinct and his freedom of taste, he created an eclectic collection, bringing together, among others, Modigliani, Soutine, Klee, Miró, Kandinsky, Picasso, and Braque.

NOTES

2 Photos taken by G. de La Bégassière. 3 In the LaM collection, Villeneuve d’Ascq, Museum of Modern Art. 4 Interview with Kahnweiler in 1955.

Roger Dutilleul’s dining room with Jeune femme

His collection was one of the most important of the era, ranking with those of Serguei Chtchoukine, Gertrude and Leo Stein, Hermann Rupf, and Wilhelm Uhde. Having no children, Dutilleul divided his collection among his nephews, the children of his sister Françoise, the wife of Jules Masurel. His nephew Jean Masurel, who shared his uncle’s passion, inherited the largest part of the collection in 1956. In 1979, Geneviève and Jean Masurel gave their impressive collection, including fourteen Modiglianis, to the city of Lille. This gift initiated the creation of the modern art museum of Villeneuve d’Ascq, which opened in 1983. Roger Dutilleul played a fundamental role in the transmission of Modigliani’s work. Not only did he pass his passion on to his family, allowing them to acquire the artist’s works directly from the Parisian market, but he also contributed to its public visibility through his generous loans to various private and public exhibitions.

aux macarons among other Modigliani, circa 1954.

We would like particularly to thank for its kind collaboration Marc Restellini, who is currently working on the catalogue raisonné of Amedeo Modigliani’s painted works. ––

Chaïm Soutine (1893-1946)

Le Chemin montant à Cagnes (or Paysage de Cagnes) The Uphill Road in Cagnes (or Landscape in Cagnes)

Circa 1923-1924 Oil on canvas Signed lower left Soutine

Milan, Galleria Bargamini, I dipinti della collezione Castaing, March-April 1987, ill.

55.2 x 38.1 cm 21.7 x 15 in

Japan, travelling exhibition (Tokyo, Odakyu Museum, 18 November 1992-7 December 1993; Nara, Nara Sogo Museum, 27 January-21 February 1993; Ibaraki, Kasama Nichido Museum, 5 March-4 April 1993; Hokkaido, Hokkaido Museum of Modern Art, 10 April-16 May 1993) Chaim Soutine Centenary Exhibition, no. 45, p. 144, ill. p. 75

Provenance Mrs David Smart, New York, until 1973 Marlborough Gallery, New York (1973-1982) Perls Galleries, New York (1982) Private collection, Switzerland Exhibitions New York, Marlborough Gallery, Soutine, 1973 Travelling exhibition (Munich, Westfälisches Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschite, 13 December 1981-28 January 1982; Tübingen, Kunsthalle, 26 March-31 May 1982, London, Hayward Gallery, 14 July-22 August 1982; Lucern, Kunstmuseum, 31 August-31 October 1982) Chaïm Soutine 1893-1943, no. 45, p. 244, p. 188, ill.

Paris, Pinacothèque de Paris, Soutine, 10 October 2007-27 January 2008, no. 43, ill. p. 120 L i t e r at u r e Coronet, February 1937, p. 13 (ill.) Maurice Tuchman, Esti Dunow, Chaïm Soutine, Catalogue Raisonné, Part I, Cologne, Taschen, 2001, pp. 242-3, no. 116, ill. (titled Paysage à Cagnes) “Soutine la fin du mythe”, special issue Connaissance des Arts, no. 653, Paris, October 2007, ill. p. 82

Chaïm Soutine

riginally from Lithuania, Soutine was one of the most important members of the School of Paris. Upon his arrival to Paris in 1913, he moved into La Ruche and then to the studio of the sculptor Mietschaninoff in the Cité Falguière, where he met Lipchitz, who introduced him to Modigliani. Soutine first tasted success at the beginning of the 1920s, when he participated in several exhibitions and some of his pieces were bought by collectors such as Léon Zamaton and Émile Lejeune. But it was above all Dr. Barnes who assured his financial security when the doctor and collector from Philadelphia bought more than 50 of his canvases through Paul Guillaume and Zborowski in 1922. The following year, Paul Guillaume organized an exhibition of a selection of the works that Dr. Barnes had acquired, including pieces by Soutine, Van Gogh, Picasso, Matisse, and Daumier, and published the first article dedicated to Soutine in his journal Les Arts à Paris. Zborowski sent him, once more, to Cagnes, a place that Soutine grew to detest: « Je voudrais quitter Cagnes, ce paysage que je ne peux supporter. » (“I want to leave Cagnes, a landscape I can’t stand.”), he wrote to his dealer. 1

Leopold Zborovski and Chaïm Soutine, circa 1926-1927.

Soutine spent two years in the South of France, from 1923 to 1924. During this intense period,Soutine made many trips between Paris, Céret, and Cagnes and painted over two hundred landscapes, among them different versions of Vue de Cagnes (Paris, Musée national d’Art moderne), Paysage de Cagnes (Chicago, Art Institute), Paysage de Cagnes avec arbre (London, Tate Modern), Arbre de Vence, Le Village (Paris, Musée de l’Orangerie) and, of course, Chemin Montant à Cagnes, all marked by a distortion of pictorial space and violent gestures and colors.

Chaïm Soutine

N otes

Le Chemin montant à Cagnes (or Paysage de Cagnes), circa 1923-1924

His colour palette perceptibly lightened during these two years.

1 cited by Jean Leymarie and Marcellin Castaing in Soutine, Paris, Bibliothèque des arts, 1963, p. 22. 2 Willem De Kooning in Quest 77, March-April 1977.

In the canvas presented here, it’s the distortion of the landscape that first strikes the eye, both of the painter and of the viewer. An overall instability works with the curving motion of the gestures, absorbing the forms into a spiral of thick paint that threatens them with disappearance. The frontal composition of Chemin Montant à Cagnes creates a screen. The blinding luminosity of the pure and vibrant colors contrasts with the landscapes from Céret, and their tumultuous depth and somber tones. The village here is bathed in light, lush green trees are framing the ocher stairs, that lead us to a deep but light blue sky. The composition is more stable here than in Céret. For Soutine, it all happens on the surface, which remains in a permanent tension. This same immediacy appears later in New York with the Abstract Expressionists, and De Kooning in particular. –– “I’ve always been crazy about Soutine – all of his paintings. Maybe it’s the lushness of the paint. He builds up a surface that looks like a material, like a substance. There is a kind of transfiguration, a certain fleshiness in his work” 2 Willem De Kooning

Paysage de Cagnes avec arbre, circa 1925, London, Tate Modern.

Joan Miró (1881-1946)

Gouache-dessin Gouache-drawing

1934 Gouache and pencil on paper Signed, dated and titled on the reverse Joan Miró / Août 1934 / « gouache-dessin » 69.9 x 104.8 cm 27.5 x 41.2 in The authenticity of this drawing was confirmed by Joan Miró himself on 19 October 1953, and also by the ADOM, on 2 November 2011. Provenance Galerie Jacques Benador, Geneva Victor Valera, France Carlos Raul Villanueva, Caracas Private collection, New York, by descent from the above Exhibition Paris, galerie Lelong, Miró, Femmes, oiseaux et monstres, 6 September-10 October 2018, repr. p. 27

Joan MirÓ

iró was an artist whose aesthetic roots lay in his native Catalonia. After his formational studies at the fine arts school in Barcelona and the exhibition of his first canvases in 1918, he left Spain to resettle in Paris. Beginning in 1920, he formed close ties with Pablo Picasso, André Masson (who introduced him to the works of Paul Klee), and the members of the Dada movement. He then became engaged with the Surrealist movement, which appealed to his interest in the oneiric, signing the Manifesto in 1924. During the summer of 1925, at Mont-roig, he began his large series of « peintures de rêve » (“dream paintings”) as Jacques Dupin called them.

Joan Miró, Paris 1936. Archives Successió Miró

The 1930’s were marked by his increasing distance from the Surrealists and his declaration that he wanted to assassinate painting by renouncing tradition and living in complete liberty. In consequence, he turned to new materials, such as collage (including those that he did for the exhibition Collages that André Breton organized at the Goemans gallery in Paris) and his series of “painting-objects” composed of found objects, metallic pieces, and bits of wood. However, in 1932, faced with financial difficulties, he was forced to leave his studio in Paris and return to Barcelona in his family home in the Passatge del Crèdit. There, he prepared his first solo show for Pierre Matisse in New York, who presented him to the American public as an avant-garde artist.

resounding success ; he participated in numerous exhibitions in Europe and in the United States, including a very large show at the Kunsthaus in Zurich alongside Max Ernst.

Then, at the family farm in Mont-roig, near Barcelona, he created a series of “drawing-collages” which first the Georges Bernheim gallery in Paris and then the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York showed with great success in the fall of 1933. The year 1934 for Miro was synonymous with

The gouache presented here was titled Gouachedessin by Miró on the back of the sheet of paper. It comes from a series that he did in August of 1934 in Mont-roig, the summer that the artist began the series of large pastels that mark the beginning of his period of “wild paintings” (1934-1936). It

Joan MirÓ

N otes

Gouache-dessin, 1934

was a transitional period for him, with works that revealed a degree of anxiety, a premonition of the political crisis brewing in Spain: « Inconsciemment, je vivais dans l’atmosphère d’un malaise caractéristique des moments où quelque chose de grave est en train d’arriver. C’est comme avant qu’il ne pleuve. » (“Unconsciously, I lived in the sort of tense atmosphere characteristic of times in which something very serious is about to happen. It’s like right before a storm.”)

1 J. Dupin and Ariane Lelong-Mainaud, Joan Miró, catalogue raisonné, dessins, vol. 1, 1901-1937, Paris,

Eleven gouaches from this important series, all of the same dimensions, where included in the catalogue raisonné of his works on paper. 1

2008, no. 479-489. 2 J. Dupin and Ariane Lelong-Mainaud, ibid, p. 11. 3 Joan Miró, cité par Georges Duthuit, « Où allez-

This gouache is the twelfth one. It belonged to the Venezuelan artist Victor Valera and then to Miró’s close friend Carlos Raul Villanueva, the architect of the university in Caracas. Archival photos show the Gouache-dessin hanging in his living-room, over the couch among other works.

In full metamorphosis, the fantastic figures seem to take shape before our very eyes, their bodies and faces changing form under the pressure of a slow glide between balance and vertigo. « L’imagination de la mort me fit créer des monstres qui m’attiraient et me repoussaient à la fois. » (“Imagining death made me create monsters that both attracted and repulsed me at the same time.”) Of the dozen gouaches in the series, six are in the collections of major museums in New York (MoMA, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, and The Pierre and Maria Gaetana Matisse Foundation), Houston (Museum of Fine Arts), Madrid (Museo Reina Sofia), and Barcelona (Fondation Joan Miró). –– « Je ne fais aucune différence entre peinture et poésie. » 3 (”I don’t make any difference between painting and poetry.”) 3 Joan Miró

vous, Miro ? », Cahiers d’art, no. 8-10, 1936, p. 262.

The series is characteristic of this period, in which Miró experimented more than ever with new techniques and different materials in several series including pastels, drawings, and paintings on sandpaper and black paper. This series of twelve is beautifully unified. The Conté pencil drawing covers almost the entire surface of the paper, and is balanced by patches of pure color. « Le contraste est radical entre le gris du crayon et l’éclat des couleurs qui interviennent dans les ovoïdes, les bandes, et dans des interférences inattendues. » (“There’s a striking contrast between the grey of the pencil and the splashes of color that occupy the ovals and bands and include surprising overlaps”) 2 Gouache-drawing hanging in Carlos Raul Villanueva’s living-room, over the couch among other works, Su Casa, cover, November 1963.

Henry Moore (1898-1986)

Ideas for Upright Internal/External Form [verso: Caricature Portrait of Publisher Peter Gregor y]

1948 Pencil, wax crayon, watercolour wash, pen and ink, gouache on paper Signed lower right Moore 29.2 x 23.8 cm 11.5 x 9.4 in This drawing is registered at the Henry Moore Foundation under the reference HMF 2409. Provenance James Alsdorf, Winnetka Richard Feigen, Chicago Dr. and Mrs. Gerhard Straus, Milwaukee and Palm Beach

Exhibitions New York, Museum of Modern Art, Primitivism in 20th Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern, 1984-1985 L i t e r at u r e William Rubin, Primitivism in 20th Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern, New York, 1984, p. 605, repr. Garrould, Ann, ed., Henry Moore: Complete Drawings 1940-49, III, Henry Moore Foundation with Lund Humphries, 2001, no. AG 47-49.14, p. 262, repr. 263

New York, Christie’s auction, 1983 William Rubin, New York Private collection, New York, by descent Private collection

Comments on page 48

Henry Moore (1898-1986)

Maquette for Upright Internal/External Form

1951 Bronze with green patina on stone base Cast from an edition of 7 + 1 Height without the base: 21.6 cm 8.5 in This piece is registered at the Henry Moore Foundation under the reference LH 294. Provenance Private collection, acquired in 1951 London, Sothebyâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s auction, 5th April l989, lot 200 William Rubin, New York Private collection, New York, byÂ descent Private collection

L i t e r at u r e Alan Bowness, Henry Moore, Sculpture and Drawings 1949-1954, II, London (1955, 1965, 1968, 1986), no. 294, p. 35, repr. p. 34 (full page pl. 23 in 1968 ed.) Ionel Jianou, Henry Moore, Paris, 1968, p. 76, no. 279

Henry Moore

Ideas for Upright Internal/External Form, 1948

n exceptional example of the artist’s vision, this work seems almost primordial in its conception. Free from the technical constraints of sculpture, Moore’s drawings allowed him to explore the full range of an imagination whose fertility is particularly revealed in his preparatory drawings for sculptures, such as that presented here, which he described as intended to create the “atmosphere of a dream”. In this drawing, Moore employs various techniques to counter the two-dimensionality of the paper, including the use of light colours on a dark ground, and the play of light, shade and reflection on the surface of the object rendered, showing where it recedes from, and advances towards, the viewer. It also uses a highly characteristic approach, developed by Moore himself in 1920, to articulate three dimensional form on a flat picture plane by the use of line alone: his hand traces imaginary horizontal and vertical sections, which bisect each other at right angles. These ‘contours’ provide a kind of shorthand for the viewer to perceive the form’s volume, and coupled with the play of light and shade, lend the drawing its relief-like quality. Drawings such as this, which explore the theme of internal and external forms, help the viewer decode the transformations that occurred during Moore’s process of realisation of his concepts, and Moore used them as an example of the dialogue between drawing and sculpture: “[It is] an example of the evolution of a work from drawing to sculpture. The interior form at the top is allowed more space in the sculpture”.

Henry Moore in his studio, in Perry Green, 1952, with a large version of Upright Internal/External Form.

Henry Moore

Ideas for Upright Internal/External Form, 1948

Maquette for Upright Internal/External Form, 1951

uring the 1950s, Henry Moore gradually changed his preparatory approach to sculpture. From 1921 onwards, drawing had been the vital generator of his ideas. But from the early 1950s onwards, he turned increasingly to the use of small-scale sculpted models, stating, “Because now I am aiming at sculpture that is truly three-dimensional, (…) I prefer to work out my ideas in the form of small maquettes which I can hold in my hand and look at from every point of view“. Most of Moore’s many ideas never reached the final sculptural form, so it is fascinating to witness the complete process of the artist’s work in relation to one that did, from the initial idea, lying flat on paper, via the transformation into a maquette that explores and realises it in three dimensions, all the way through to the final, large-scale sculpture.

“Sculpture in air is possible, where the stone contains only the hole, which is the intended and considered form.” Henry Moore’s desire to dig down deep into his materials, in all their density, and to create inner spaces contained within a greater volume, allows him to use air, space, and light as an important material in a sculptural approach for which absence is as important as presence, emptiness as important as substance. If, as has been suggested, Henry Moore’s is an example of twentieth century which never looks dated, perhaps this could be due to the universality of its sculptural themes; for him, every living being’s subconscious has been fundamentally conditioned by “universal forms”, the sight of which causes an echo inside us, which he felt when he studied so-called primitive arts. During the 1950s, Henry Moore applied himself particularly to the interplay of internal and external forms. He found inspiration in the organic forms of nature, and in the theme of mother and child. This work is, for Moore, “a sort of embryo being protected by an outer form, a mother and child idea, or the stamen in a flower, that is, something young and growing being protected by an outer shell.” The plastic qualities of these forms bring to mind the carved Malanggan masks from the New Ireland province of Papua New Guinea, which Moore greatly admired, and sketched in his notebook from 1935, on visits to the British Museum. “I realised what a sense of mystery could be achieved by having the inside partly hidden so that you have to move round the sculpture to understand it. I was also staggered by the craftsmanship needed to make these interior carvings.” ––

Henry Moore, Upright Internal/External Form: Flower, conceived in 1951, bronze with brown patina, height 76 cm (30 in) with the base.

Alexander Calder (1898-1976)

Number 1 to 5

1954 Hanging mobile with painted sheet metal and wire Numbered on the top of the largest elements 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 56.9 x 190.5 cm 22.4 x 75 in This work is registered in the Archives of the Calder Foundation, New York under application number AO1773. Provenance Lewis Kaplan collection, London Acquavella Galleries, New York and B.C. Holland Gallery, Chicago Private collection, USA (acquired in 1975) Christieâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s New York, Post-War and Contemprary Art (Evening Sale), 10 November 2004, lot 20 Galerie Hopkins Custot, Paris Private collection, Monaco

Exhibition Bloomington, University of Indiana Museum, Hope Collection, Twentieth Century Selection, 10 October23 December 1982

Alexander Calder

umber 1 to 5 dates from 1954, a period in which Calder became internationally known and successful. Two years before, he had been awarded the Grand Prize for sculpture at the Venice Biennale, which was followed by a series of public commissions, including one in 1954 for the famous ceiling of the Universitad Central in Caracas (Carlos Raúl Villanueva, architect) and one in 1957 for the mobile in Idelwald Airport (now known as J.F. Kennedy Airport). Number 1 to 5 reflects the artist’s interest in mobiles with sweeping grace. And though his mobiles had always been asymmetrical, the suspended elements of this one appear more geometric. This balance is reinforced by his use of color as he conceptualized it in 1951: ”I have chiefly limited myself to the use of black and white as being the disparate colors. Red is the color most opposed to both of these – and then, finally, the other prima-

Alexander Calder in his Connecticut studio, 1955.

Alexander Calder

NOTES

1 A. Calder, “What

Number 1 to 5, 1954

ries. The secondary colors and intermediate shades serve only to confuse and muddle the distinctness and clarity.” 1

Abstract Art Means to Me”, Museum of Modern Art Bulletin, 18, no. 3, Spring 1951, pp. 8-9. 2 A. Calder quoted in Exposition Calder, exhibition catalogue, Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, 1955.

The poetic structure of Number 1 to 5, at once both exuberant and balanced, is based on the juxtaposition of the largest curved elements to the smallest triangles and trapezoids, which turn around several axes, as if the cosmos and its lightness had been miniaturized. ”Since the beginning of my work in abstract art, and even though it was not obvious at that time, I felt that there was no better model for me to work from than the Universe... Spheres of different sizes, densities, colors and volumes, floating in space, surrounded by vivid clouds and tides, currents of air, viscosities and fragrances – in their utmost variety and disparity.” 2 This is an emblematic work that perfectly demonstrates Calder’s desire to translate space into a symbol of energy and vital force. ––

Franz Kline (1910-1962)

Untitled

Circa 1954 Oil on paper Signed, dedicated and inscribed lower right 4th of July/to James Franz 60.3 x 46.4 cm 23.7 x 18.2 in Provenance Gift of the artist to his best friend, the sculptor James Rosati Estate of Mrs. Carmela Rosati Mc Kee Gallery, New York Private collection, Belgium Exhibitions Washington D.C., The Phillips Collection, Franz Kline: The Color Abstractions, 17 February-8 April 1979, no. 51, repr. p. 76 (travelling exhibition: Houston, The Institute for the Arts, Rice University, May-July 1979; Los Angeles, County Museum of Art, July-September 1979; Seattle, Art Museum 1979) New York, Van Doren Waxter Gallery, Color(less), 28 October-23 December 2015

Franz Kline

”Well, look, if I paint what ‘you’ know, then

that will simply bore you. If I paint what ‘I’ know, it will be boring to myself. Therefore I paint what I don’t know.” Franz Kline

The pictorial style of the New York artist Franz Kline perfectly incarnates the immediacy that characterizes abstract expressionism. Though he began as a figurative painter, Kline developed his abstract style during the 1950s. First oriented toward black and white, he began introducing color into his palette from 1954-1955 on. Untitled, c. 1954, is a beautiful example of Kline’s experiments with color; patches of blue, red, and yellow overlap across a composition structured around a black form. The critic Robert Goldwater

Franz Kline in his studio, 1958.

Franz Kline Untitled, circa 1954

NOTES

1 Robert Goldwater, in William S. Lieberman, An

described the force of these compositions well: “Generated from within, by an immense internal unit, a swath or rectangle, a closed shape or a crossed one, that pushes and extends the perimeter until it has sufficient room to take its proper form.” 1

American Choice: The Muriel Kallis Collection, New York, 1981, p. 62 2 excerpt from the Van Doren Waxter Gallery website.

“Franz Kline’s Untitled (1954) exemplifies the Ab Ex artist’s spontaneity and singular voice in bold, primary-colored hues, punctuated by strategic brushwork in signature black paint. The linear quality and employment of negative and positive space that defined so many of his masterpieces, and set him apart from the all-over compositional structure of many of his peers, is entirely evident in this piece, which impacts visual space well beyond its 23 by 18-inch format.” 2 ––

Manolo Millares (1926-1972)

Cuadro 121

1960 Mixed media on burlap Signed lower right Millares and signed, dated and titled on the stretcher Millares – Cuadro 121 (1960)

Exhibitions Paris, Galerie Daniel Cordier, Millares, 16 February-16 March 1961

130 x 162.3 cm 51.2 x 63.9 in

Paris, Musée d’Art moderne de la ville de Paris, IV Salon : Grands et jeunes d’aujourd’hui, Peinture-Sculpture, 1962, no. 84, repr.

Provenance

L i t e r at u r e

Galerie Daniel Cordier, Paris

José-Augusto França, Millares, Editiones Poligrafa, Barcelona, 1977, p. 249, no. 119, repr. p. 70

Galleria Odyssia, Roma Betty Estevez collection, Paris Private collection, Basel Sotheby’s London, 5 April 1990, lot 629 Champin-Lombrail-Gautier, Enghienles-Bains, 19 June 1991, lot 29 Private collection, Germany Christie’s London, 6 February 2002, lot 24 Private collection, London

Alfonso de la Torre, Juan Manuel Bonet, Miriam Fernandez, Manolo Millares : Pinturas, Catalogo Razonado, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid, 2004, no.205, repr. p. 237

Manolo Millares

aised in the Canary Islands, Manolo Millares was fascinated by traces and ruins since his very first visits to the museum in Palma, Mallorca. There he discovered the mumified remains of the Guanches, the indigenous people who lived on the island and became the victims of colonial conquest. “I realized that what I was looking at were the signs of the extermination of a people. That was the starting point for my work on burlap.” 1 Humanity’s vulnerability would become the principal theme of Millares’ work. As his practice evolved, the abstract and violent textures of his canvases came to be haunted by ghostly traces of human presence hiding in the folds and shadows of his paintings. “The artist records things in their raw state... he watches over the despair of our time and stitches up the wounds.” 2 This notion is conveyed by a visceral expression of fragility, fear, and faith. Millares began making collages in 1954, mixing sacking, ceramic, wood, and sand. It was only after he moved to Madrid in 1955 that he became interested in the work of Alberto Burri, whose works on burlap had a strong effect on him. Often associated with the development of Arte Povera as well as with the Art Informel movement alongside Antoni Tàpies and Jean Fautrier, Millares

Manolo Millares, circa 1960.

Manolo Millares Cuadro 121, 1960

NOTES

1 M. Millares, cited in J.-A., França, Millares, Barcelona, 1978.

evolved an aesthetic that is more anchored in the horrors of history – the Second World War, Hirsoshima, and, of course, the Spanish Civil War. Millares was a founding member, along with Antonio Saura, Pablo Serrano, and Manuel Rivera, of the group El Paso, and his work expresses the state of a humanity scarred by deep trauma.

2 Ibid. 3 M. Millares, cited in Manolo Millares Recent Paintings,

“To immediate reality I oppose my protest and my anxiety. It manifests in torn cloth, pierced and wounded surfaces, the noise of strained ropes, the stupid wrinkle of beauty...” 3

exhibition catalogue, Pierre Matisse Gallery, New York, 1960.

By the end of the 1950s, Millares was internationally acclaimed, and his works were shown at the Biennales in São Paulo and Venice. New York’s MoMA added his work to their collections in 1957, as did the Tate Gallery in London in 1962. In New York, he was represented by Pierre Matisse, and in Paris, by Daniel Cordier. He was given a retrospective at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in 1971. The work that we present here, Cuadro 121, dates from this prolific period. Like a wound wrapped in bandages, this work affirms the double vision of destruction and salvation. Suggesting a relic from an unknown civilization, transformed by the scars of time, the work hides figurative illusions in its voids – two eyes and a mouth, perhaps, or the frail contour of a star, a hope. ––

Maurice Estève (1904-2001)

Montavent

1963 Oil on canvas Signed and dated lower left Estève 63 Signed, dated and titled on the reverse 100 x 73 cm 39.4 x 28.7 in Provenance Neue Galerie, Zürich Private collection, Europe Exhibitions Kassel, Dokumenta II, 1968 Baden-Baden, Kunsthalle, Bazaine, Estève, Lapique, 11 October10 November 1968, repr. Ulm, Ulmer Museum, Maurice Estève, 27 May-8 July 1973, repr. Bremen, Kunsthalle, Maurice Estève, 3 February-10 March 1974, repr.

L i t e r at u r e Robert Maillard, Monique Prudhomme-Estève, Estève, Catalogue raisonné de l’œuvre peint, Paris, Ides et Calendes, 1995, no. 562, p. 367

Maurice Estève

Maurice Estève, born in Culan, a village in the

center of France, came from a modest background. Self-taught, he worked at a number of trades and spent all his spare time in the Louvre, walking down its halls and drawing. He had his first solo exhibition in 1930 at the Yvangot Gallery. In 1937, Robert and Sonia Delaunay invited him to participate in decorating the Pavillon des Chemins de fer et de l’Aviation (the Pavilion of Railroads and Aviation) at the Exposition universelle. That same year, following Braque’s advice, he was asked by the Franco-Swedish gallery in Stockholm to take part in the important exhibition Peinture française along with Picasso, Gris, Matisse, and Léger. In 1941, Estève decided to dedicate himself entirely to his art and participated with Bazaine, Lapicque, Manessier, Tal Coat, Édouard Pignon and others in the famous show at the Braun Gallery, Vingt jeunes peintres de tradition française (Twenty Young Painters of the French Tradition), which was considered the manifesto of what became known as the “Nouvelle école de Paris”. He entered into a verbal agreement with Louis Carré, who was his gallerist until 1949. It was the era in which the embrace of Bonnard’s colors was at its height.

Maurice Estève in his studio, photo Monique Prudhomme Estève.

In 1956, Jorn Rubow gave him a very large exhibition, the first outside of France, at the Statens Museum for Kunst in Copenhagen. Estève became internationally known and had solo and group shows around the world. Estève then began working with the Villand-Galanis gallery, which unveiled his watercolors and drawings to the public in 1955. They were immensely successful; in 1956, Pierre Francastel wrote the first monograph on his work, and after that, the shows came one after the other (Stockholm, Basel, Düsseldorf, Copenhagen, Oslo...). After his spouse died in 1965, he took refuge in the intimacy of his studio and worked in secret.

Maurice Estève Montavent, 1963

N ote

1 Quoted in Catalogue raisonné, op. cit., p. 25.

Then in 1967, he began a collaboration with the Neue Galerie in Zurich and started showing at Claude Bernard’s in Paris (drawings in 1972, watercolors in 1973, collages in 1974, and oils in 1977) once again presenting his work to the public. From then on, his work continued to gain importance among his contemporaries and became inscribed in the history of 20th Century art as one of the essential links in the turn toward abstraction. The city of Bourges dedicated a museum to him that houses a number of his works, and the Musée national d’Art moderne, centre Pompidou, holds ten of his pieces. He is also represented in numerous other museums in France and elsewhere in the world. Estève composed his paintings according to his inspiration, following a long creative evolution that could take several years. « Processus où la spontanéité et la réflexion se relayent, où les séances de travail, relativement courtes, alternent avec de longues périodes de méditation ou d’oubli et qui vise à préparer ce qu’Estève appelle joliment “le lit de la peinture” » (”A process that goes back and forth between spontaneity and reflection, in which relatively short periods of work alternate with long periods of meditation that prepare ‘the bed of the painting,’ as Estève nicely put it.”) 1 He spoke of a conversation carried on with a work.

In Montavent, the artist orchestrated a new dialogue between forms and colors, creating a subtle balance both in the layerings of color on the surface of the work and in the curves bathed in diaphanous light. Estève liked dissonance. He knew how to unite the greatest mastery with true spontaneity, how to oppose the fluidity of curves with the rigidity of straight lines. His confrontations among formal elements found their resolution in an alchemy of style of which Montavent is the perfect example. –– « En vérité une toile est pour moi une somme de reprises incessantes qui dure jusqu’à ce que je me trouve devant un organisme que je sens vivant. Seule ma sensibilité peut me dire si j’ai atteint ou non cette reconnaissance. » (“In truth, for me, a painting is the result of a series of incessant revisions that continues until I find myself before an organism that I sense is alive. Only my sensitivity can tell me whether or not I’ve achieved this.”) Maurice Estève

Pablo Picasso (1881-1973)

Nu et musicien assis Seated Nude and Musician

2 April 1967 Oil on canvas Signed lower right Picasso Dated on the reverse 2.4.67. III 81 x 100 cm 31.9 x 39.3 in The authenticity of this work was confirmed by Claude Picasso on 14 July 2016. Provenance Galerie Louise Leiris, Paris (no. 62747) Galerie Jacques Melki, Paris Private collection, Brussels, acquired from the above in 5 December 1971 Private collection, France L i t e r at u r e Christian Zervos, Pablo Picasso, Œuvres de 1965 à 1967, vol. xxv, Paris, 1972, no. 325, p. 142, repr.

u et musicien assis is variation on the series of large paintings and drawings that Picasso began in 1963 focused on the theme of the painter and his model. The series includes a number of masterpieces, all of these are distinguished by spontaneous brushwork that translates the force of the artist’s creative energy. Throughout the 1960s, as he further developed this theme, the painter, faced with the naked model, is replaced by another character portrayed with an attribute that identifies his role – card player, guitarist, pipe smoker, or musketeer. In Nu et musicien assis, Picasso has eliminated painter and model as well as the easel. It’s no longer a painter, but a flute-player. The flute stands in for the paintbrush and the music for the work of art, and thus it’s the tune that charms the model. The frame of the studio is erased, and the scene takes places in the open air, amid an idealized nature.

Pablo Picasso

That said, the composition is not a simple reference to a classical scene from Greek antiquity, but his reinterpretation of it in the light of modernity. The late paintings and drawings from the “painter and his model” series were done during one of the most engaged and energetic periods of Picasso’s life, inspired by his last love, Jacqueline Roque. Picasso first met her in 1952 at Vallauris during one of his visits to the pottery studio, Madoura, where he was making ceramic pieces and where Jacqueline had just begun working. They married in 1961, and she became the muse that inspired more of his works than anyone else. In Nu et musicien assis, even though her facial features are not readily identifiable, her long, undulating black hair is. With her voluptuous curves and relaxed pose, the model clearly recognizes her role as the artist’s object of desire and symbolizes the ultimate representation of femininity. Seated before her, the flute-player, inspired by his tune, closes his eyes, certain of his seduction. Painted in 1967, this painting is the purest expression of Picasso’s genius.

Pablo Picasso

Nu et musicien assis, 2 April 1967

The simplicity of the silhouettes combines with the complexity of the lines, underscoring its force. The figures create a striking contrast in which the classical nature of the theme stands out against the deft pictorial treatment. The work is marked by a harmony similar to that in many paintings from his last ten years and is one of the pieces representative of the final flowering of his work.

N ote

1 K. Gallwitz, Picasso: The Heroic Years, New York, 1985, p. 161.

Pablo Picasso, Nu et musicien assis, 3 April 1967,

The day after he painted the work presented here, which is to say, on 3 April, 1967, Picasso continued to pursue this theme in another canvas, also titled Nu et musicien assis, which depicts the flute-player charming the naked woman not in the open air, but inside a room. That work is among the Picasso masterpieces held by the Fondation Beyeler, on long-term loan from the Anthax Collection Marx. ––

Basel, Fondation Beyeler, on long-term loan from the Anthax Collection Marx.

“Only with advancing years did Picasso recognize in painter and model the radical point of departure that elevates the physical process of painting to the subject of painting itself.” 1 K. Gallwitz

Eduardo chillida (1924-2002)

Dibujo tinta Ink drawing

1973 Ink on paper Signed lower right Chillida 26.8 x 28 cm 10.5 x 11 in Provenance Galerie Lelong, Zurich Private collection, Belgium Exhibition Zurich, Galerie Lelong, Eduardo Chillida, June-August 2004, no.â&#x20AC;&#x2030;â&#x20AC;&#x2030;13, repr.

Eduardo Chillida

hillida began studying architecture in 1943, but quickly gave it up in favor of sculpture, drawing, and engraving. Beginning in 1950, his sculpture became completely abstract and more and more purified, with clear-cut cubic forms leading to elementary “open” and autonomous structures. His drawing is, in a sense, a matter of sculpture on paper; his conception of sculpture is inscribed in the grand tradition of the modern fine arts and extends the work begun by Pevsner, Giacometti, and Moore. Throughout his career, Chillida worked with a wide range of materials: plaster, iron, wood, stone, steel, concrete, clay, and paper. The play of light and the relationship between positive and negative spaces are at the center of his artistic practice, allowing his sculptures to reinterpret the spaces that they occupy. « Les yeux sont faits pour voir de près et de loin. » (“Eyes are made for seeing both close up and far away”) remarked the artist, for whom works on Eduardo Chillida working in his studio, Villa Paz, Spain,1963. Photo Waintrob.

Eduardo Chillida

N ote

1 Jacques Dupin, “Gravitations”, in Par quelque biais vers quelque bord, éd. P.O.L., 2009, p. 301, a text for the catalogue for the Chillida’s

Dibujo tinta, 1973

paper were a fundamental part of his œuvre. In ink, as with this piece, in pencil, or through the techniques of engraving, cut-out, and collage, his graphic work embraces the same principles as his sculptures, playing between the full and the empty. His abstract drawings in black ink such as Dibujo tinta find themselves right on the line between spatial research and an exercise in calligraphy.

exhibition at the Galerie Lelong in Zurich in June, 2004.

« Justesse des articulations. Musicalité des rapports. Dans l’ouvert de l’espace, l’ombre est le protagoniste de la lumière. Tension jumelée de la séparation et de l’accouplement, éclairs brisés issus de la faille, comme pour commander la main philosophale à l’œuvre dans l’espace criblé, et sans cesse réactivité... » (“The precision of articulations. The musicality of relations. In the opening of space, the shadow is the protagonist of light. Tension twinned with separation and coupling, broken shafts of light emerging from a rift, as if to order the philosophical hand to work in the riddled space, ceaselessly reactivating...”) 1 ––

We wish to express our deep gratitude for their contribution to this catalogue: Josephine Balloul, David Lévy & Associés, Brussels Laure Ber trand, graphic design, Brussels Ignacio Chillida, Museo Chillida-Leku, Hernani Dominique Choffel, David Lévy & Associés, Paris Philippe de Formanoir, photograph, Brussels Ariane Lelong-Mainaud, ADOM, Paris Monique Prudhomme-Estève, Bourges Alber to Ricci, photograph, Paris Cole Swensen, translation, Paris

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