Sam Szafran

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sam Szafran (* 19th November 1934 in Paris ; † 14. September 2019 in Malakoff ) was a French he artist .

Life

Szafran was born in Paris as the son of Polish-Jewish emigrants . He spent his childhood in the Quartier des Halles , before he had to hide in the country and then in Switzerland during the war .

After initially working abstractly as a young artist in the Atelier de la Grande Chaumière at Henri Goetz, Szafran tried out the pastel technique in the early 1960s. In post-war Paris he met Jean Arp , Yves Klein , Jean-Paul Riopelle , Joan Mitchell , Alberto Giacometti , Henri Cartier-Bresson and Martine Franck . In 1963 he married Lilette Keller, a Swiss woman, and their son Sebastien was born a year later. After modest years in studios provided by friends, they moved to Malakoff in 1974 .

plant

The discovery of the pastel was of great importance to Szafran. He has been using Pastels Roché chalks since the early 1960s , which the three sisters of the Roché family make in the Maison du Pastel using their own recipe. From then on, this technique determined his work, be it alone, in conjunction with charcoal pencil or with watercolor . At the same time, his work became thematically concentrated during this time. Numerous series of stairs, greenhouses and studios testify to his obsession with mastering the anachronistic technique of pastel painting, which was as perfect as it is today . In times of abstraction and grand gestures, this painting represents a rejection of most of the tendencies of contemporary art, both in its representational quality and in its striving for precision craftsmanship; it is an art against concepts, trends and fast-moving fashions. So it is no wonder that the works of the French artist have been exhibited rarely and only in his home country or in French-speaking Switzerland .

Pastel boxes in the artist's studio

Jean Clair and Jean-Louis Prat organized the first retrospectives in 1999 and 2000 at the Pierre Gianadda Foundation in Martigny / Switzerland and at the Maeght Foundation in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. In 1993 Szafran received the Grand Prix des Arts de la Ville de Paris. In 2008, as part of the exhibition Le Mystère et l'éclat. Pastels du musée d'Orsay presented two of his pastels at the Musée d'Orsay in Paris. In 2011 Piero Crommelynck was awarded the 3ième Prix.

Exhibitions

  • Pierre Gianadda Foundation, Martigny, 2013
  • 3ième Prix Piero Crommelynck, estampes, Galerie de l'Ancien Collège, Châtellerault, June to August 2011
  • Drawings, pastels, watercolors, Max Ernst Museum Brühl des LVR, November 7, 2010 - January 30, 2011 (catalog in German, French and English ed. By Julia Drost and Werner Spies)
  • Pavillon des Arts et du Design, Jardin des Tuileries, Galerie Hopkins & Custot, Paris, 2. – 6. April 2008
  • Musée de la Vie romantique, Hôtel Scheffer-Renan, Paris, 2001 (catalog edited by Daniel Marchesseau with texts by Michel Le Bris and Daniel Marchesseau)
  • Fondation Pierre Gianadda, Martigny, 1999 / Fondation Maeght, Saint Paul, 11 février-30 mars 2000 (catalog edited by Jean Clair with texts by Jean Clair and Gérard Macé)
  • aquarelles, Galerie Vallois, Paris, 1992 (catalog with a text by Jean Clair)
  • dessins & pastels, Caja Iberia, Saragosse, 1988 (catalog with texts by Orlando Pelayo, Jean-Dominique Rey and Henri Cartier-Bresson)
  • aquarelles, Galerie Claude Bernard, Paris, 1987 (catalog with a text by James Lord)
  • pastels, Galerie Claude Bernard, Paris, 1987 (catalog with a text by Jean Clair)
  • fusains, Galerie Claude Bernard, Paris, 1976 (catalog with a text by James Lord)
  • pastels, Galerie Artel, Genève, 1974 (catalog with a text by Fouad El-Etr)
  • pastels, Galerie Claude Bernard, Paris, 1972 (catalog of texts by Fouad El-Etr, Jean Paget and Georges Schéhadé)
  • dessins, Galerie Jacques Kerchache, Paris, 1965 (catalog with a text by Pierre Schneider)

literature

  • Jean Clair : Sam Szafran. Skira, Geneva, 1996.
  • Daniel Marchesseau: Le Pavillon Szafran. Pierre Gianadda Foundation, Martigny, 2005.
  • Daniel Marchesseau, Henri Cartier-Bresson : La Collection Sam, Lilette et Sébastien Szafran. Pierre Gianadda Foundation, Martigny, 2005.
  • Julia Drost, Werner Spies (ed.): Sam Szafran - drawings, pastels, watercolors: exhibition catalog. Max Ernst Museum Brühl des LVR, November 7, 2010 - January 30, 2011. Feymedia, Düsseldorf, 2010 (German, French, English).

Web links

  • Sam Szafran. Claude Bernard Gallery, archived from the original on September 12, 2015 (French).;

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Jean Clair: Sam Szafran . Geneva 1996.
  2. ^ Daniel Marchesseau: Le Pavillon Szafran. Pierre Gianadda Foundation, Martigny, 2005.
personal data
SURNAME Szafran, Sam
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French artist
DATE OF BIRTH November 19, 1934
PLACE OF BIRTH Paris
DATE OF DEATH September 14, 2019
Place of death Malakoff