"Alfred COURMES (1898 - 1993) -Paris, canal view- Dated 1928."
Mixed media. Drawing, watercolor, gouache.
Dimensions of the work: 17.5 x 11.5, with the frame 37.5 x 32.5 cm
This urban and industrial design is fine and neat.
It is probably the Saint Martin Canal.
We can see several moored boats and a crane in the foreground overlooking the Parisian buildings.
The artist has colored part of his drawing revealing a piece of blue sky, two brown doors and a two-tone building facade thus bringing a poetic touch to his work
After his secondary studies in Monaco, his father, a naval officer, encouraged him in his desire to be a painter.
He moved to Paris in 1925, became a student of Roger de La Fresnaye and exhibited at the Salon des indépendants and the Salon d'automne where he exhibited Cubist paintings and portraits.
The following year, he moved to Ostend where he was inspired by his contemporaries Ensor, Permeke, Labisse while soaking up old Flemish and Dutch painting, Van Eyck, Hans Holbein, Dürer, Brueghel discovered by visiting the museums of Bruges and Ghent.
His paintings become surrealist, classical and expressionist at the same time
Often diverting mythological themes in his paintings and borrowing from the imagery of advertising of his time for humorous purposes.He is nicknamed the Angel of bad taste by his detractors. But his provocations bring him to notoriety
In 1930, he moved to Paris and in 1936 received the Paul Guillaume Prize (shared with Tal-Coat) for Saint Sebastian
He obtained an order in 1937, The Touch for the pavilion of the Sèvres manufacture at the International Exhibition in Paris. In 1938, Albert Sarraut, Minister of National Education, proposed to him the wall decoration of the dining room of the French Embassy in Ottawa, Canada.
In 1946, he participated in the Surrealist exhibition in Lille with Magritte
He exhibits at the May Fair
Recognized as a precursor of a generation of young painters at the exhibition "Twelve years of Contemporary Art" at the National Gallery of the Grand Palais in 1972
He participates in the exhibition "Daily Mythologies" at the Museum of Modern Art of the city of Paris, as well as in that "The Realisms between revolution and reaction 1919-1939" at the Georges-Pompidou Center.
He was appointed Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1991.
Alfred Courmes, "the unclassifiable" has put his solid culture and classical technique at the service of an art imbued with a striking humor and great poetry.
He followed his path without ever giving in to ease. The value of this endearing and singular artist is now recognized in art circles.
Main exhibitions:
1965: Biennial of São Paulo, Brazil
1977: Retrospective, Jean Briance Gallery, Paris
1979: Retrospective, Grenoble Museum6
1984: Writing in painting, CNAC, Nice
1989: Retrospective, Museum of Fine Arts of Poitiers
1989: Retrospective, Saint-Roch Museum in Issoudun
1989: Retrospective, Museum of Fine Arts of Roubaix
1989: Retrospective, Centre Georges-Pompidou, Paris
1998: Realists of the 1920s, Seita Museum-Gallery, Paris
Bibliography:
-Gilles Bernard and V. Andriveau, Alfred Courmes, Paris, The Cherche midi, 2003, 183p
Museum:
Paris, Georges-Pompidou Center
Museum of Bormes-Les-Mimosas, Algiers, Beauvais, Blérancourt, Boulogne-Billancourt, Grenoble, Issoudun, Poitiers and Roubaix.
the curator of the Museum of Modern Art in New York acquires in a personal capacity the San Sebastian at the lock