Jean FAUTRIER - Lot 4

Jean FAUTRIER *Jean FAUTRIER (1898 - 1964) - The partisans 1956 Gouache watercolor on paper Signed lower right, titled and dated lower left 35 x 29 cm Provenance : Gallery Couturier - Auction Drouot 23 June 1999, PIASA - Saint Germain en Laye, Schmitz-Laurent 23 April 2006 We would like to thank Dominique Fautrier for the information provided concerning the provenance of this work. Note: Jean Fautrier's paintings are masterpieces of expression and texture, embodying a rare emotional depth. A pioneer of informal art, Fautrier uses innovative techniques to create works in which matter itself seems alive. Each of Fautrier's paintings is an exploration of the human condition, reflecting the torments and beauties of existence. Following the Soviet repression in Budapest in 1956, Jean Fautrier, in homage to the Hungarian uprising, took up the theme of his poet friend in his Les Partisans series. These profiles of resistance fighters who died defending their freedom form a particularly poignant whole. It echoes another series, Les Otages, created between 1940 and 1945, which had been inspired by the sound of the daily executions of prisoners by the Germans during the Occupation. The Partisans series is Fautrier's ode to freedom. The intensity is equally strong, however, with the contrast of the partisans' blood, illustrated by the purplish-pink streaks running down their pale profiles. The faces are barely sketched, halfway between abstraction and figuration. This anonymity reinforces the impression of a crowd and groups united for freedom.