South of France

Oil on canvas, signed lower left. Gérard Souzay (né Gérard Marcel Tisserand le 8 décembre 1918 à Angers, Maine-et-Loire, et mort le 17 août 2004 à Antib...

Victor Cerrato Atelier, ten slabs in carved tuff. Made for the lobby of Hôtel Royal in Spotorno (Savona, Italy), circa 1960, Turin, Italy. Measures: Height 83 cm, width 637 cm, d...

Oil on canvas, signed lower right.

He was born in Paris, the son of a conversation though open-minded middle-class family. His father runs the family business of optical equipment but he's also a theatre lover, an author and a poet. He gives his son a strict education and the boy will feel closer to his mother. Pierre De Maria will become a honest, straightforward man, uncompromising to himself and the others. He is very particular about his appearance and, as a child of the "Belle époque" takes up to a kind of dandysm. A cousin of his, Jacques Camoreyt (a pupil of Albert Maignan) teaches him how to master pictorial techniques along with the rather academic education in Arts he is going through. From 1907 to 1914 he is a student at the Lycée Condorcet, first graduates in science and languages, then at the Engineering College just before World War 1. The sight of atrocities will leave a deep scar in his memory. He has a miraculous escape from the war and finds a job in the family firm. He soon realizes he hates everything related to engineering and decides to launch on into painting. He works as a scene painter with Ronsin and Laverdet workshop and on stage with "avant-garde" drama companies. In the same time, he shows his work at the "Salon d'Automne" in 1923 an gets a honour prize in the modern painting department. In 1925 he takes up to boxing and creates some polychromatic facades with Djo Bourgeois, then gets into the Art Deco trend as an architect and a decorator. Henri-Pierre Roché, a writer (Jules et Jim) a painter and an art collector close to the cubists has already discovered talents ( Brancusi, Wols…) and takes an in interest in Pierre De Maria. Autoportrait Environ 1960 In 1926 (the "Années Folles "in Paris) Pierre De Maria meets Marcel Duchamp, Brancusi and the surrealist gang he enjoys but never joins. « They were friends and I was curious but I never liked the hint of complaisance I saw in their work. » He then starts some technical research an collages as shown in his first exhibition of "pasted gouaches" in Princess'Murat 's gallery in Paris. (« Fermé la nuit ») « I never thought I'd make money with my paintings. I took to painting as I would have taken holy orders » He works as a journalist for Marianne and Vu magazines (1932-1933) and writes a detailed report about the Maelström in Norway and the soviet Movies. He has the opportunity to meet Eisenstein and Poudovkine in Sovietic Russia and thinks of making a name for himself in the Movie industry. In 1939 Pierre De Maria meets Germaine Pellegrino who becomes his wife a year later. They'll have two sons : Jacques born 1942 and François born 1943. The family settle in Geneva at the end of 1943. During those years he writes an unpublished autobiographical novel («Tir à volonté») as well as a collection of thoughts about various topics such as war. He also writes poems and a play (as his father had done) «Cornelius'death», in a rather humorous manner. « He who conveys the opinion of fools makes certain to get the majority of votes ». In 1944 he is back in Paris, leaving his wife. He'll settle in Nice in 1953 and starts there his mechanical period with the recurrent theme of machinery in his painting. In 1958 he has his second exhibition in Paris (JC de Chaudun's gallery) and shows a series of lino-engravings done after some drawings of his: he then begins being acknowledged by his contemporaries, his fellow-painters and the Parisian artistic circle. Jacques Prévert even dedicated him a poem. («Les Machinoutis») Henri Pierre Roché, Henri-Pieyre de Mandiargues, Yves Taillandier contribute to the catalogue, well received by the press. In the meantime, he has his works exhibited at the Salon d'Automne, the Salon de Mai, and the Salon Comparaison. In 1963, Flemish wood-engraver Frans Masereel, and Professor Gowa, the curator of the Offenbach Fine Arts, both introduce Pierre De Maria successfully in Germany, allowing him to become famous abroad. The Homo Atomicus Exhibition gathers 45 paintings, recounting the artist'progress over the past ten years. He's then nicknamed the «Atomic age Hyperonymus Bosch» ! In 1964, Greek gallery owner Iris Clert finds him out and helps him into a new career. He is then 68. Iris Clert, as a specialist in Contemporary Art has contributed to the coming out of the New Realism movement through her most spectacular and mediatical exhibitions. She takes a fancy to Pierre De Maria 's work : « The visit of his studio turned my love at first sight into a cutainty : he uses the technique from the Ancients to express Future. » Afterwards, both get into intense collaboration so that the painter is allowed to use the gallery owner's european and international net. In 1966, his work's dedicated a research published in Connaissance des Arts Magazine n° 70 : » A foreground study of Pierre De Maria in this month issue ». Later an article in International Art. In 1969 he turns 73 and he can see his first retrospective exhibition in Nice at the Ponchettes Gallery (about 60 paintings). At 76, he meets artist Hélène Bottet, from then on allowing humour to take over violence in his art. Machines don't frighten him anymore, he's now able to mock them even through they remain at the core of his paintings, in spite of the mechanical Art...

Oil on canvas, signed lower right.

A fun and lovely floor lamp representing a large flower crafted out of copper and brass. The flower head is made out of a large red copper disc and a number of brass and copper petal...

Christo (1935, USA) and Jeanne-Claude (1935-2009, USA), Documenta de Kassel, 1968, Ultra-chrome print, 60 x 50 cm, N°4/12, signed by Christo, Jeanne-Claude and the photographer Wolfang Volz. On the occasion of the Documenta IV in 1968, in Kassel, Germany, Christo and Jeanne...

Sideboard with two drawers, wood structure, with decor painted in the Venetian style circa 1960, Italy. Measures: Height 83 cm, width 150 cm, depth 58 cm.

Fusain on paper, signed lower right.

Fusain on paper, signed lower right

Stunning brutalist floor lamp of hammered iron with an oxydized, verdigris patina and bronze finish. Thick slabs of bautifully coloured rough-cut glass in the stem which can be light...

Jean-Marie Simonnet and Martha, Les Simonnet Sculpteurs, Sculpture polymorphic red lacquered fiber glass, Circa 1968, France. Height: 2m50, width: 130 cm, depth: 90 cm. After ...

Rare box by Jean Derval ceramic lid with bird shaped handle, olive wood box. One of a kind. By Jean Derval. ( 1925/2010 ) Vallauris circa 160's In 194...

IB Kofod-Larsen (1921-2003) coffee table by Seffle Möbelfabrik, coffee table in elm with resin and stone top, stamped, with pebbles inclusions, edi...

Jean Prouvé with guy Rey-Millet, dining room table, wood, Refuge de la Vanoise, CAF, Les Arcs, circa 1967, France. Measure: Height 70 cm, ...