Skip to main content

Léon Gischia Art

French, 1903-1991

Born in the ancient market town of Dax, not far from coastal Biarritz, in southwestern France, Léon Gischia moved to Paris in the early 1920s, where he studied under the French artist Ferdinand Léger in his Montparnasse studio. Alongside artists Amédée Ozenfant and Le Corbusier, Ferdinand Léger was a principal exponent of the Purist movement. Purism’s unique fusion of figurative representation with vibrant Cubism would prove a lifelong influence upon the work of Léon Gischia.

As part of the International Exhibition in Paris, over the summer of 1937, Gischia collaborated with his former-teacher Léger on Le Corbusier’s radical designs for the Pavillon des Temps Nouveaux. A huge tent erected outside the main grounds of the exhibition — and described by a critic of the day as “the most exciting, convincing and easily remembered” — they expressed their vision of an ‘ideal city’ of the future. Fast gaining a significant artistic reputation, Gischia was recognised by influential Parisian art dealer and publisher Jeanne Bucher. His first solo exhibition took place in March 1938 at Bucher’s Montparnasse gallery, and amid garnering critical acclaim, his artistic debut was followed in 1939 by an exhibition at Galerie Alfred Poyet — just north of the Élysée Palace — in the 8th arrondissement of Paris.

After the outbreak of the Second World War and the Nazi invasion in June 1940, Gischia remained in Paris and resolutely resisted the “degenerate” label applied to his work. Along with other artists from the “underground” avant-garde, Gischia successfully exhibited and sold his inventive work throughout the war in “back rooms” at the Galerie Braun and the Galerie de France. Alongside Gischia’s poetic sensibilities and sumptuous work, his wartime stoicism would consolidate his later position as an influential voice of the “School of Paris” group.

Gischia’s fruitful post-war relationship with the Galerie Billiet-Caputo — a stone’s throw from the Galerie Alfred Poyet, for which he exhibited before the war — resulted in his representing France at the 1948 Venice Biennale. This secured his international reputation, and soon, he was exhibiting in private galleries across the world. During the 1950s, Gischia even designed costumes and sets for the Theatre National Populaire in Paris, later writing well-regarded books on sculpture and so-called “primitive art.” Today his work features in public collections throughout Europe and the United States, and during the 1980s — before his death in Venice — Gischia enjoyed numerous internationally acclaimed retrospective exhibitions.

(Biography provided by Stern Pissarro Gallery)

to
2
7
1
Overall Width
to
Overall Height
to
8
1
4
3
2
1
1
8
1
1
1
1
1
1
4
3
2
2
1
8
8,780
2,809
1,653
1,313
8
Artist: Léon Gischia
Weight Lifter - Lithograph by Léon Gischia - Late 1900
By Léon Gischia
Located in Roma, IT
Weight Lifter is an original colored lithograph artwork realized by Léon Gischia during the XX century. Hand-signed in pencil on the lower right. Numbere...
Category

Late 20th Century Léon Gischia Art

Materials

Lithograph

Correspondence by L. Gischia to N. Jacometti - 1960
By Léon Gischia
Located in Roma, IT
This Correspondence between Léon Gischia and Nesto Jacometti, written in French and Italian , in 1960, is composed of 7 items, prefectly readable and in excellent conditions, except...
Category

1960s Surrealist Léon Gischia Art

Materials

Permanent Marker

Correspondence by Léon Gischia to Nesto - 1950s
By Léon Gischia
Located in Roma, IT
This Correspondence by Léon Gischia to Nesto Jacometti, written in French, between 1954-55, is composed of 3 items, prefectly readable and in excellent ...
Category

1950s Modern Léon Gischia Art

Materials

Paper, Ink

Poetical Composition - Pen on Cardboard by Léon Gischia - 20th Century
By Léon Gischia
Located in Roma, IT
Poetical Composition is an original drawing in pen applied on cardboard realized by Léon Gischia during the XX century. Very good conditions. Included a...
Category

20th Century Contemporary Léon Gischia Art

Materials

Cardboard, Pen

Abstract Composition - Screen Print by Léon Gischia - Late 1900
By Léon Gischia
Located in Roma, IT
Abstract Composition is an original colored serigraph realized by Léon Gischia during the XX century. Hand-signed in pencil on the lower right. Numbered ...
Category

Late 20th Century Abstract Léon Gischia Art

Materials

Screen

Correspondence by Léon Gischia - 1960
By Léon Gischia
Located in Roma, IT
This Correspondence between Léon Gischia and Nesto Jacometti, written in French and Italian , in 1960, is composed of 7 items, prefectly readable and in ...
Category

1960s Modern Léon Gischia Art

Materials

Paper, Ink

Correspondence by L. Gischia to N. Jacometti - 1954-55
By Léon Gischia
Located in Roma, IT
This Correspondence by Léon Gischia to Nesto Jacometti, written in French, between 1954-55, is composed of 3 items, prefectly readable and in excellent conditions, except for holes...
Category

1960s Surrealist Léon Gischia Art

Materials

Permanent Marker

Happy New Year - Drawing by L. Gischia - 1960
By Léon Gischia
Located in Roma, IT
Happy New Year is an original black marker drawing on paper with autograph wishing notes by the French artist Léon Gischia to Nesto Jacometti, editor and collector of Graphic art. ...
Category

1960s Surrealist Léon Gischia Art

Materials

Permanent Marker

Related Items
Young Hearts, Portland Gallery London offset lithograph
By Jack Vettriano
Located in Hillsborough, NC
Jack Vettriano (1951-) is renowned for his film noir oil paintings and 1930s glam style. Uniquely Vettriano, ‘Young Hearts’ is set by the seaside inviting narratives about the figures in his work: relationships, anticipation, power and suggestion. Vettriano grew up by the Fife Scottish coast. He began painting beach scenes as a young adult, later developing his particular recognizable style and thematic imagery. His work was embraced by celebrities such as Madonna and Jack Nicholson and he has become hugely successful. His most famous painting, ‘The Singing Butler...
Category

Early 2000s Contemporary Léon Gischia Art

Materials

Lithograph, Offset

Offrandes, Lithograph, Limited Edition Numbered and Signed by the Artist
Located in Palm Desert, CA
Algerian painter Hocine Ziani was born in Algeria, lives and works in France. He is an autodidactartist. Professional painter since 1978-1993 in Algeria, 1994-2009 in France. Foundin...
Category

2010s Other Art Style Léon Gischia Art

Materials

Lithograph

Untitled (Cross Hatch) /// Abstract Geometric Jasper Johns Minimal Screenprint
By Jasper Johns
Located in Saint Augustine, FL
Artist: Jasper Johns (American, 1930-) Title: "Untitled (Cross Hatch)" Series: Jasper Johns Screenprints *Unsigned edition Year: 1977 Medium: Original Scre...
Category

1970s Abstract Léon Gischia Art

Materials

Screen, Parchment Paper

Grove #1 /// Abstract Geometric Colorful Jay Rosenbulm New York Screenprint Art
By Jay Rosenblum
Located in Saint Augustine, FL
Artist: Jay Rosenblum (Americam, 1933-1989) Title: "Grove #1" *Signed by Rosenblum in pencil lower right Year: 1979 Medium: Original Screenprint on white Stonehenge paper Limited edi...
Category

1970s Abstract Geometric Léon Gischia Art

Materials

Screen

Arrived /// Bauhaus Abstract Geometric Josef Albers Screenprint Yellow Minimal
By Josef Albers
Located in Saint Augustine, FL
Artist: Josef Albers (German-American, 1888-1976) Title: "Arrived" Portfolio: Soft Edge - Hard Edge *Signed and dated by Albers in pencil lower right ...
Category

1960s Abstract Geometric Léon Gischia Art

Materials

Screen

Glaspalast Edition print, Munich Germany, SCARCE when Hand Signed by Sean Scully
By Sean Scully
Located in New York, NY
Sean Scully Munich 1996 (Hand Signed), 2001 Offset Lithograph print Hand signed and dated by Sean Scully in 2018 Boldly signed in black marker on the recto. Hand signed by Sean Scull...
Category

Early 2000s Abstract Geometric Léon Gischia Art

Materials

Ink, Permanent Marker, Lithograph, Offset

Untitled, Jasper Johns. Colorful rainbow hatching on parchment
By Jasper Johns
Located in New York, NY
This print features Johns's exuberant hatching in orange, white, bright green, and purple atop collaged newsprint. Printing on translucent parchment makes the image particularly vibr...
Category

1970s Abstract Léon Gischia Art

Materials

Screen

In a French Restaurant (Knoedler Gallery) SIGNED poster colorful expressionist
By (After) Howard Hodgkin
Located in New York, NY
A large scale abstract interior scene with bold black, white, red, pink, green, white and orange patterns and brushstrokes, based on an abstract oil painting. Pink and purple dots, y...
Category

1980s Abstract Léon Gischia Art

Materials

Screen

David Roth 'Untitled 1' Signed, Limited Edition Geometric Abstract Print
By David Roth
Located in San Rafael, CA
David Roth (b. 1942) Untitled 1, 1979 Silkscreen in colors on wove paper Edition 11/150 Each signed, numbered, and dated in pencil along lower edge Image 22 3/4in H x 22 3/4 in L In...
Category

1970s Abstract Geometric Léon Gischia Art

Materials

Screen

Variant II /// Josef Albers Abstract Geometric Screenprint Minimalism Bauhaus
By Josef Albers
Located in Saint Augustine, FL
Artist: Josef Albers (German-American, 1888-1976) Title: "Variant II" Portfolio: Ten Variants *Unsigned edition Year: 1967 Medium: Original Screenprint on Rives BFK paper Limited edi...
Category

1960s Abstract Geometric Léon Gischia Art

Materials

Screen

Marc Chagall - Inspiration - Original Lithograph from "Chagall Lithographe" v. 2
By Marc Chagall
Located in Collonge Bellerive, Geneve, CH
Marc Chagall Original Lithograph from Chagall Lithographe 1957-1962. VOLUME II. 1963 Dimensions: 32 x 24 cm From the unsigned edition of 10000 copies without margins Reference: Mourlot 398 Condition : Excellent Marc Chagall (born in 1887) Marc Chagall was born in Belarus in 1887 and developed an early interest in art. After studying painting, in 1907 he left Russia for Paris, where he lived in an artist colony on the city’s outskirts. Fusing his own personal, dreamlike imagery with hints of the fauvism and cubism popular in France at the time, Chagall created his most lasting work—including I and the Village (1911)—some of which would be featured in the Salon des Indépendants exhibitions. After returning to Vitebsk for a visit in 1914, the outbreak of WWI trapped Chagall in Russia. He returned to France in 1923 but was forced to flee the country and Nazi persecution during WWII. Finding asylum in the U.S., Chagall became involved in set and costume design before returning to France in 1948. In his later years, he experimented with new art forms and was commissioned to produce numerous large-scale works. Chagall died in St.-Paul-de-Vence in 1985. The Village Marc Chagall was born in a small Hassidic community on the outskirts of Vitebsk, Belarus, on July 7, 1887. His father was a fishmonger, and his mother ran a small sundries shop in the village. As a child, Chagall attended the Jewish elementary school, where he studied Hebrew and the Bible, before later attending the Russian public school. He began to learn the fundamentals of drawing during this time, but perhaps more importantly, he absorbed the world around him, storing away the imagery and themes that would feature largely in most of his later work. At age 19 Chagall enrolled at a private, all-Jewish art school and began his formal education in painting, studying briefly with portrait artist Yehuda Pen. However, he left the school after several months, moving to St. Petersburg in 1907 to study at the Imperial Society for the Protection of Fine Arts. The following year, he enrolled at the Svanseva School, studying with set designer Léon Bakst, whose work had been featured in Sergei Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. This early experience would prove important to Chagall’s later career as well. Despite this formal instruction, and the widespread popularity of realism in Russia at the time, Chagall was already establishing his own personal style, which featured a more dreamlike unreality and the people, places and imagery that were close to his heart. Some examples from this period are his Window Vitebsk (1908) and My Fianceé with Black Gloves (1909), which pictured Bella Rosenfeld, to whom he had recently become engaged. The Beehive Despite his romance with Bella, in 1911 an allowance from Russian parliament member and art patron Maxim Binaver enabled Chagall to move to Paris, France. After settling briefly in the Montparnasse neighborhood, Chagall moved further afield to an artist colony known as La Ruche (“The Beehive”), where he began to work side by side with abstract painters such as Amedeo Modigliani and Fernand Léger as well as the avant-garde poet Guillaume Apollinaire. At their urging, and under the influence of the wildly popular fauvism and cubism, Chagall lightened his palette and pushed his style ever further from reality. I and the Village (1911) and Homage to Apollinaire (1912) are among his early Parisian works, widely considered to be his most successful and representative period. Though his work stood stylistically apart from his cubist contemporaries, from 1912 to 1914 Chagall exhibited several paintings at the annual Salon des Indépendants exhibition, where works by the likes of Juan Gris, Marcel Duchamp and Robert Delaunay were causing a stir in the Paris art world. Chagall’s popularity began to spread beyond La Ruche, and in May 1914 he traveled to Berlin to help organize his first solo exhibition, at Der Sturm Gallery. Chagall remained in the city until the highly acclaimed show opened that June. He then returned to Vitebsk, unaware of the fateful events to come. War, Peace and Revolution In August 1914 the outbreak of World War I precluded Chagall’s plans to return to Paris. The conflict did little to stem the flow of his creative output, however, instead merely giving him direct access to the childhood scenes so essential to his work, as seen in paintings such as Jew in Green (1914) and Over Vitebsk (1914). His paintings from this period also occasionally featured images of the war’s impact on the region, as with Wounded Soldier (1914) and Marching (1915). But despite the hardships of life during wartime, this would also prove to be a joyful period for Chagall. In July 1915 he married Bella, and she gave birth to a daughter, Ida, the following year. Their appearance in works such as Birthday (1915), Bella and Ida by the Window (1917) and several of his “Lovers” paintings give a glimpse of the island of domestic bliss that was Chagall’s amidst the chaos. To avoid military service and stay with his new family, Chagall took a position as a clerk in the Ministry of War Economy in St. Petersburg. While there he began work on his autobiography and also immersed himself in the local art scene, befriending novelist Boris Pasternak, among others. He also exhibited his work in the city and soon gained considerable recognition. That notoriety would prove important in the aftermath of the 1917 Russian Revolution when he was appointed as the Commissar of Fine Arts in Vitebsk. In his new post, Chagall undertook various projects in the region, including the 1919 founding of the Academy of the Arts. Despite these endeavors, differences among his colleagues eventually disillusioned Chagall. In 1920 he relinquished his position and moved his family to Moscow, the post-revolution capital of Russia. In Moscow, Chagall was soon commissioned to create sets and costumes for various productions at the Moscow State Yiddish Theater...
Category

1960s Surrealist Léon Gischia Art

Materials

Lithograph

"Omniverso" Omniverse - contemporary, surrealist, graphic, geometric sun print
By Pedro Friedeberg
Located in Ciudad de México, MX
The repetition of patterns and rhythm is present in almost every piece of Pedro´s work. The hybrid topographies that Pedro Friedeberg´s unclassifiable practice recreates we must rec...
Category

21st Century and Contemporary Surrealist Léon Gischia Art

Materials

Digital

Previously Available Items
Black One - Eyed Man - Original Tempera by Léon Gischia - 1960s
By Léon Gischia
Located in Roma, IT
Black one-eyed man is an original painting in tempera on paper realized by Léon Gischia in the 1960s. Hand-signed at the bottom in pen. Good conditions....
Category

1960s Abstract Léon Gischia Art

Materials

Tempera

Untitled - Original Screen Print by Léon Gischia - 1970
By Léon Gischia
Located in Roma, IT
Untitled is an original graphic artwork realized by Leon Gischia in the 1970s. Mixed colored serigraph. Hand-signed on the lower right corner. Numbered ...
Category

1970s Abstract Léon Gischia Art

Materials

Screen

Dark Composition - Original Screen Print by Léon Gischia - Late 1900
By Léon Gischia
Located in Roma, IT
Dark Composition is an original colored serigraph realized by Léon Gischia during the XX century. Hand-signed in pencil on the lower right. Numbered in p...
Category

Late 20th Century Abstract Léon Gischia Art

Materials

Screen

Joyful Composition - Original Screen Print by Léon Gischia - Late 1900
By Léon Gischia
Located in Roma, IT
Joyful Composition is an original colored serigraph realized by Léon Gischia during the XX century. Hand-signed in pencil on the lower right. Artist's pr...
Category

Late 20th Century Abstract Léon Gischia Art

Materials

Screen

Léon Gischia art for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Léon Gischia art available for sale on 1stDibs. If you’re browsing the collection of art to introduce a pop of color in a neutral corner of your living room or bedroom, you can find work that includes elements of orange, red and other colors. You can also browse by medium to find art by Léon Gischia in pen, permanent marker, ink and more. Much of the original work by this artist or collective was created during the 20th century and is mostly associated with the Surrealist style. Not every interior allows for large Léon Gischia art, so small editions measuring 9 inches across are available. Customers who are interested in this artist might also find the work of Roland Topor, André Breton, and André Dignimont. Léon Gischia art prices can differ depending upon medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $293 and tops out at $14,016, while the average work can sell for $446.

Artists Similar to Léon Gischia

Recently Viewed

View All