Sven Hauptmann

lot of four surrealist inks - ink on paper, 10.5x30.5 cm., framed

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...

gouache on paper maroufflé on canvas. not framed. *Paul Rigoulet, peintre abstract français, né en 1924 à Samöens (Haute-Savoie). Il fait ses études à l'école nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, atelier Jean Souverbie...

Surrealist drawing of an old fashion straw broom. The work is similar to the known artist Avigdor Arikna's etching after real-life objects. The work is not...

Surrealist proto-Afropunk drawing by African-American artist, Roland Ayers (1932-2014). Hesitation Blues, 1968. Ink on paper, sheet measures 13 x 23 inches; 14 x 18 inches in archival pH-neutral matting. Signed and dated lower right. Excellent condition with no damage or restoration. Provenance: Sheila Ayers-Whitelaw Exhibition History: Roland Ayers: Calligraphy of Dreams, Woodmere Art Museum, 07/10/2021 - 10/24/2021 Artist and art educator, Roland Ayers was born on July 2, 1932, the only child of Alice and Lorenzo Ayers, and grew up in the Germantown district of Philadelphia. Ayers served in the US Army (stationed in Germany) before studying at the Philadelphia College of Art (currently University of the Arts). He graduated with a BFA in Art Education, 1954. He traveled Europe 1966-67, spending time in Amsterdam and Greece in particular. During this period, he drifted away from painting to focus on linear figurative drawings of a surreal nature. His return home inaugurated the artist’s most prolific and inspired period (1968-1975). Shorty before his second major trip abroad in 1971-72 to West Africa, Ayers began to focus on African themes, and African American figures populated his work almost exclusively. In spite of Ayers’ travel and exploration of the world, he gravitated back to his beloved Germantown, a place he endowed with mythological qualities in his work and literature. His auto-biographical writing focuses on the importance of place during his childhood. Ayers’ journals meticulously document the ethnic and cultural make-up of Germantown, and tell a compelling story of class marginalization that brought together poor families despite racial differences. The distinctive look and design of Germantown inform Ayers’ visual vocabulary. It is a setting with distinctive Gothic Revival architecture and haunting natural beauty. These characteristics are translated and recur in the artist’s imagery. During his childhood, one of the only books in the Ayers household was an illustrated Bible. The images within had a profound effect on the themes and subjects that would appear in his adult work. Figures in an Ayers’ drawing often seem trapped in a narrative of loss and redemption. Powerful women loom large in the drawings: they suggest the female role models his journals record in early life. The drawings can sometimes convey a strong sense of conflict, and at other times, harmony. Nature and architecture seem to have an antagonistic relationship that is, ironically, symbiotic. A critical turning point in the artist’s career came in 1971 when he was included in the extremely controversial Whitney Museum show, Contemporary Black Artists in America. The exhibition gave Ayers an international audience and served as a calling card for introductions he would soon make in Europe. Ayers is a particularly compelling figure in a period when black artists struggled with the idea of authenticity. A questioned often asked was “Is your work too black, or not black enough?” Abstractionists were considered by some peers to be sell-outs, frauds or worse. Figurative* work was accused of being either sentimental or politically radical depending on the critical source. Ayers made the choice early on to be a figurative artist, but considered his work devoid of political content. Organizations such as Chicago’ s Afri-Cobra in the late 1960‘s asserted that the only true black art of any relevance must depict the black man and woman...