MARFAING, FINALLY !
Two galleries are exhibiting the painter, who benefits from editorial and institutional coverage
CONTEMPORARY ART
André Marfaing
Août 1972-30, 1972
acrylic on canvas
130 x 162 cm
© Bertrand Michau / Galerie Berthet-Aittouarès
Paris. Two exhibitions were needed: to mark the publication of the catalogue raisonné (1) of the work of André Marfaing (1925-1987); to salute the arrival of several paintings at the Centre Pompidou, one of which hangs in the permanent collection of the Musée National d'Art Moderne; and to remind us of the development, breadth and, above all, depth of his work.
The first, at the Galerie Berthet Aittouarès (which is also the fourth personal exhibition at the gallery in the last fifteen years) brings together some twenty paintings dating from 1967 to 1986 - from the gallery's collection and that of his family, Didier and Marie, his children.
For the most part, these works sketch out black continents that Marfaing has come to strike with white lightning bolts (lines, strokes) that open up cracks, fissures and fissures to generate tension and density, and create powerful contrasts to reveal the light. And all without the slightest fuss, with astonishing speed, radicalism and lightning speed.
For the most part, these works sketch out black continents that Marfaing has come to strike with white lightning bolts (lines, strokes) that open up cracks and fissures to generate tension and density, and create powerful contrasts to reveal the light. And all without the slightest fuss, with astonishing speed, radicalism and lightning speed.
The second exhibition, at Claude Bernard, whose gallery (with which Marfaing signed his first contract in 1957) has been taken over since his death in 2022 by his nephew Michel Soskine, brings together canvases and a few washes from the 1950s and 1960s. Painted in dark shades of black or grey across the whole spectrum, with a few windows of white, they bear witness to an expressionism of this period that, with great mastery, already foreshadows the gestures, signs and calligraphy developed in his later canvases.
Prices range from €26,000 for small formats to €260,000 for the largest works. They have risen sharply in recent years, and are now consistent with the prices of an important artist who had fallen into oblivion following his death and the closure of his studio.
Henri-François Debailleux
(1) André Marfaing, 1948-1986, ed. Skira, 2023
André Marfaing, Lumières Noires, until October 28, Galerie Berthet-Aittouarès, 14-29 rue de Seine, and Galerie Claude Bernard, 7-9 rue des Beaux-Arts, 75006 Paris.