Oil on canvas

Galerie Maurice Garnier, Paris
Private Collection, France (and sold: Sotheby's, New York, November 3, 2011, lot 352)
Acquired at the above sale

Canvas is not lined. Surface is clean with a rich and textured impasto. Artist's pinholes are apparent at all four corners. Under UV light: no inpainting is apparent. Overall the work is in excellent condition.
In response to your inquiry, we are pleased to provide you with a general report of the condition of the property described above. Since we are not professional conservators or restorers, we urge you to consult with a restorer or conservator of your choice who will be better able to provide a detailed, professional report. Prospective buyers should inspect each lot to satisfy themselves as to condition and must understand that any statement made by Sotheby's is merely a subjective qualified opinion.
NOTWITHSTANDING THIS REPORT OR ANY DISCUSSIONS CONCERNING CONDITION OF A LOT, ALL LOTS ARE OFFERED AND SOLD "AS IS" IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE CONDITIONS OF SALE PRINTED IN THE CATALOGUE.

Bernard Buffet may well be one of the most controversial artists in recent memory. From the inception of his career to the present day, the artist had been everything from an overnight millionaire, a popstar, an iconoclast and a recluse. His works have been called everything from challenging to kitsch, taboo to transformative, yet they have been celebrated, abandoned and celebrated once again. Whether Buffet’s works are loved or hated, it is impossible to ignore the fierce response they evoke.

At once a traditional painter and unwitting member of the French ava⭕nt-garde, Buffet's hand-crafted style and prolific output evoke an off-kilter alternative to the spectacular commercial serialism of Pop. The kind of popularity that burst upon Bernard Buffet as a young painter in the 1950s is quite unparalleled in the twentieth-century visual arts in terms of both its intensity and its broad social reach. Buffet’s art was, as the author Maurice Druon wrote as late as the mid-1960s, “on the street.” It was to be found on the covers of magazines and LPs, on postcards, postage stamps, wall plates, giftwrap and plastic bags.

The following nineꦬ lots represented one of the finest groupings of his work available in a single auction. From clowns to landscapes to still-lifes, these images have a confrontational quality that is both brutal yet provocative. Thick slabs of paint are applied through the use of a broad palette knife. Coarse, physical, and intense, there is a tension innate in these works that ultimately imbues them with the power to withstand the test of time.