Bernard Buffet 1968 "Final" (from Mon Cirque) Edition 111/120 frame - 37"X49"

Bernard Buffet
"Final"
(from Mon Cirque)
1968
Color lithograph on Arches paper
Image: 26.875 x 38.125;

Sheet: 28.125 x 40;

Frame: 37.25 x 49

Signature: Signed lower right margin;

Edition lower left margin: #111 of 120

Published by Fernand Mourlot, Paris

literature: Sorlier, Charles. Bernard Buffet, Lithographe. Vol I.

Paris: M Trinckvel, 1979. #185.



Bernard Buffet

1928-1999



Most well-known for his figurative paintings, the prolific French artist Bernard Buffet was born and raised in Paris. As a young man, he studied for two years at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts and quickly earned critical acclaim. His first work was exhibited in 1946, a self-portrait shown at the Salon des Moins de Trente Ans at the Galerie Beaux-Arts. A year later, the Art Impressions book shop hosted Buffet's first solo show.

Buffet was a strong proponent of figuration at a time when abstraction's international popularity was dramatically on the rise. Along with Bernard Lorjou and André Minaux, he was a founding member of the French anti-abstraction group L'homme Témoin (the

"Witness-Man"). His own works - most frequently landscapes, portraits, and still lives - employ graphic lines, slashes, and spikes and a subdued palette, aesthetic choices that aligned Buffet with a sense of post-war melancholy.

Moreso than many of his contemporaries, Buffet experienced a dramatic rise and fall in popularity throughout the course of his career.

His early and remarkable success was met with a marked downfall beginning in the 1950s:

As the New York Times put it in 2016, "Few artists have known the roller coaster of fame and shame that the French painter Bernard Buffet experienced during his life. Buffet, who was once hailed as the artistic successor to Picasso only to be reviled later as vulgar and the epitome of poor taste, was an immensely popular artist before falling into near oblivion."

Not everyone abandoned Buffet. Indeed, in 1977, Maurice Garnier chose to dedicate his gallery exclusively to the artist. Garnier, who passed away in 2014, had once hoped to open a museum dedicated to Buffet; while he did not realize this dream in his lifetime, collector Kichiiro Okano did open The Bernard Buffet Museum in Surugadaira, Japan, in 1973.

Buffet suffered from Parkinson's Disease, a condition that led to his death by suicide in 1999, at the age of

Condition:

Art work shows original fold from origination folder. Slight Toning. Frame is new with Museum Glass and may show signs of wear. See images for more info.