(Paris 1898–1964 Chatenay) Lignes colorées, 1961, signed Fautrier, oil, mixed media on paper, laid down on canvas, 54 x 81 cm, framed, (PP)

The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by the Comité Fautrier, Paris.

Provenance:
Galleria Apollinaire, Milan
Collection Carlos Monzino, Europe (label on reverse), purchased there 1961 The heirs

Exhibitions:
Venice, XXXI Biennale Internazionale d’Arte, 1962, no. 319 (label on reverse);
Codogno, Ex-Ospedale Soave, Jean Fautrier, 1994, exhibition catalogue no. XXI with ill.

«A TIMELESS WORK OF ART»
This painting was created during a perfect year in which Fautrier at the height of his fame experienced a period of effervescent and bubbling over inspiration. The artist had just become the prize-winner of the 30th Venice Biennale in 1960 and was about to be rewarded the International Biennale Prize in Tokyo hereby asserting his work all over the entire world.

The light background and the lively colours that dance (sway) over the paper applied carefully on our painting stress an optimistic and fanatic aesthetic. Meanwhile the beauty of this work of art conceals (veils) the complex creative process, rich in memories and significance. Upon reading Fautrier and after having discovered the painter’s rare drawings and those of his companion and mate Jeannine Aeply with whom he had worked together on various projects such as «les reproductions Aeply» or «les Originaux Multiples« this artist’s poetic and silent work of art has become more eloquent.

Indeed this „abstraction“ draws its sources from diverse inspirations and various periods of time. A first reading refers to the artist’s memories, the painting brings to mind and represents the white mountains of his past. The landscape full of colours and the reflections of the sun, represented by colourful lines and sprinkled pigments upon the substance hereby becomes such a dreamy abstraction (une abstraction onirique). The elevated pulp symbolizes the snow and prominent mountains (which the light livens up).

During his conversation with Jean Lescure in the 1950s Fautrier entrusted the following onto him: «I intensively loved the mountains during the winter, in other words when it is perfectly silent,…. one can walk for hours and hours in this space dominated by a very white winter wonderland that is formed beautifully and where shapes take on a value like the sun, and shades, in a perfect solitude.»

PAST-PRESENT: «THE PRIMITIVE DETAIL - LE DÉTAIL PRIMITIF… »
The recent discovery of the manuscripts related directly to the artist’s work reveals among other things an inspiration enriched by cultural and decorative elements originating from a sculpture Chamba acquired near André Malraux by the artist. The motives (and scarifications) that suddenly appear and arise from this statue definitely reminded him of the scratch marks that he had already applied in his drawings and paintings in the 20s and 30s. The sword-shaped legs extend the shape of the arms of the statue. They have something of a Brancusi ladder without an end that Fautrier places on the canvas horizontally (he hereby allocates two extremities that could continue endlessly).

When the artist portrays this tribal statue he does it with a few sorrowful features. Indeed it is not the figurative presentation of the statue that interests him/appeals to him/captivates him, but that which he can extract to serve his casual and informal art (his free representation*).

In this painting one notices that the lines painted before application of the elevated paper rejoin those painted afterwards. Here Fautrier portrays scarifications at the level of the chest of his model and the summit crest motives (of the statue Chamba) on the same level. The white pulp hereby becomes the body of the sculpture. The statue is abstractisee and reduced to the material which contains these cultural elements and signs. The shape thus becomes informal while conserving the drawing, witness of a silhouette that animates and livens up the substance.

This painting created during Jean Fautrier’s contemporary and informal period becomes a key work of art (une œuvre clé) due to his perfection in his execution and conceptualisation, enlightened by preliminary drawings that offer us a better understanding of the complex and subtle procedures of his work.
(© Nazim Kadri: Excerpt from the book in preparation “Fautrier Artist, Fautrier Collector”)