PRINTPROVENANCE:
Private collection, Asia
Private collection, Asia
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Iris au fond gris clair
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1990 Oil on canvas 195 x 114 cm
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Estimate
2,600,000 - 3,800,000 668,000 - 977,000 86,100 - 125,900
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Inquiry
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Catalogue Note:
IRIS AU FOND GRIS CLAIR
BERNARD CATHELIN
Bernard Cathelin was born in Paris in 1919. In 1945, he became enrolled in the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, and was at the same time a student in the studio of French painting master Maurice Brianchon. Cathelin adopted the strong, vivid colors after the style of Les Fauves and employed brilliantly contrasting tones in the early phase of his career. In 1947, he began teaching at École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. In 1950, he was awarded the Blumenthal Prize that is dedicated to helping the young artists of France. In 1958, his work was selected for exhibition by the David B. Findlay Gallery of New York, and he was featured on the cover of the New York Herald Tribune Sunday supplement, after which his artworks were frequently exhibited in Japan, the US, France, Europe, and all around the world. In 1995, he was elected to the French Légion d’Honneur by the President of the Republic. This was his highest honor in life. In 1997, a largescale retrospective exhibition was dedicated to him at the Valence Museum, France. In 2000, a large-scale retrospective exhibition was held in the Shanghai Art Museum (SAM), China. Even after the artist’s passing in 2004, his work is still frequently exhibited around the world.
Cathelin remained devoted to his home country throughout his entire lifetime, and was especially fond of his mother's hometown, Drôme. He had learned art in the company of Maurice Brianchon and Henri Matisse. His works comprise mostly of oil on canvas using paint brush and palette knife, and involve the rich, dynamic use of colors and textures. He traveled all over the world for artistic inspiration, and embodied the most poetic topics with his paint brush. The artist’s career spanned Modernism as well as the period of Contemporary Art from 1960 to this date. In terms of artistic style, Cathelin took after the approach of 20th Century École de Paris, followed by the Minimalism of the 60s and 70s. His portrayal of scenes, portraits, and still life are freely and boldly expressive.His unique use of the simple, the geometric, and red, has become the defining feature of his artistic oeuvre. Cathelin attempted and successfully achieved the use of modernist representations of poetry in visual art within his own artworks. His paintings are thus the real embodiment of the wings that give freedom to our minds and enable us to become aware of the illimitable possibilities in human consciousness.
Cathelin is adept at using different shapes as elements for forming a vividly colored composition of wondrous splendor. The use of geometric shapes for distributing color has become his iconic painting style. He is highly sensitive to the texture of color, and adores using vibrant colors for creating vivid contrasts. With their dynamic layers of color and solid, weighted textures, his paintings are natural and unconstrained. Vases, flowers, churches, farmlands, ladies in fancy dress, passengers deep in contemplation--all these common scenes of daily life are the sources of his inspiration. We are able to identify an atmosphere of solemnity in many of his compositions, a style that can ignite both our physical and mental passions. This is why Cathelin's paintings, full of the rich sense of humanity, holds a uniquely global appeal.
The brushstrokes of the painting Iris au Fond Gris Clair are gracefully unrestrained. In terms of color, Cathelin refrained from the use of sweet, harmoniously warm tones and instead employed shades of beige and gray. The earthen wall complements the scarlet red of the irises, breaks up the rigidity of the overall composition, and imbues the strongly contrasting colors with a sense of dynamic harmony, thereby engendering vitality and and an ambiance of refreshing energy. Warm beige gray, creamy white, pale pink, and the pastel green of springtime verdure incorporated into the painting kindle a sense of romantic nostalgia. The beige gray background complements the bunch of flowers on the right of the painting so that the overall composition extends outwards. The irises of a serene bluish violet are extremely prominent with blossoms resembling a kaleidoscope of dancing butterflies. Very subtly, the artist has toned down the lush, verdant leaves into shades of pastel green so that both the cluster of leaves and the flowers positioned higher above accentuate the vivacity and livelihood of the blooming irises. Positioned lower down the canvas are scarlet red irises with large petals, long stems, and stamens facing the front of the image that inadvertently become the highlight of the composition. In the background, three violet irises and their sword-shaped leaves are delicately depicted high above the vase, particular prominent amidst the cluster of red below—figures of solitary pride and aloofness. Where the two colors converge, beige lines are used to outline the round vase, the shape of which contracts from the base up towards the middle. As if a bouquet had been placed randomly into the vase, the space between the flowers and the leaves, and between the flowers and the edge of the vase are casually and sentimentally depicted. The flaming reds and serene violets seem to belong to an alternative dimension of Cathelin’s soul, colors that have been engendered through the vitality of life.
Artists are adept at capturing the essence of form, a piece of scenery, or a bouquet of flowers; this is a profound truth that extends beyond reality: the discovery of the essence of things through their surface enables us to attain a sphere of life of perfect harmony. This work is vastly elegant, deeply poetic, and perfectly embodies the artist's love for natural sceneries. Through the use of dynamic colors and semi-realist techniques, Cathelin highlights the natural beauty of the subject matter. His richly colored works are often excerpts of scenes from the countries he has visited, including the Drôme region of France, Mexico, India, and Japan, and incorporate both local colors and textures. Each of Cathelin's works is like a richly poetic haiku.
Cathelin is a creator. Unintentionally, he has created a unique world of wide, open space that at the same time has contained boundless infinity into a tiny corner of the room--small enough to fit into a vase. His lived time and sensory time are intertwined into the so-called time that belongs only to the artist. What connects these times is the pursuit for harmony within his ideology--that is, his pursuit of revealing the essence of painting via strong expressive techniques, and the discovery of the essence of things through their surface so as to attain a sphere of life that is perfectly harmonious. His various approaches to details are extremely intriguing: he is able to depict the elegance of a hand gesture, the graceful suppleness of a woman's shoulders, the serenity contained in a still vase, and the rhythm of a posture. He is able to exhibit the dazzling beauty of fresh, blooming flowers, meticulously outline the forms of houses and furniture, capture the dynamism of mountains, and express the peacefulness of expansive fields of rye. Bernard Cathelin's paintings enable to us to experience the joy and peacefulness of the soul, to
BERNARD CATHELIN
Bernard Cathelin was born in Paris in 1919. In 1945, he became enrolled in the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs, and was at the same time a student in the studio of French painting master Maurice Brianchon. Cathelin adopted the strong, vivid colors after the style of Les Fauves and employed brilliantly contrasting tones in the early phase of his career. In 1947, he began teaching at École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs. In 1950, he was awarded the Blumenthal Prize that is dedicated to helping the young artists of France. In 1958, his work was selected for exhibition by the David B. Findlay Gallery of New York, and he was featured on the cover of the New York Herald Tribune Sunday supplement, after which his artworks were frequently exhibited in Japan, the US, France, Europe, and all around the world. In 1995, he was elected to the French Légion d’Honneur by the President of the Republic. This was his highest honor in life. In 1997, a largescale retrospective exhibition was dedicated to him at the Valence Museum, France. In 2000, a large-scale retrospective exhibition was held in the Shanghai Art Museum (SAM), China. Even after the artist’s passing in 2004, his work is still frequently exhibited around the world.
Cathelin remained devoted to his home country throughout his entire lifetime, and was especially fond of his mother's hometown, Drôme. He had learned art in the company of Maurice Brianchon and Henri Matisse. His works comprise mostly of oil on canvas using paint brush and palette knife, and involve the rich, dynamic use of colors and textures. He traveled all over the world for artistic inspiration, and embodied the most poetic topics with his paint brush. The artist’s career spanned Modernism as well as the period of Contemporary Art from 1960 to this date. In terms of artistic style, Cathelin took after the approach of 20th Century École de Paris, followed by the Minimalism of the 60s and 70s. His portrayal of scenes, portraits, and still life are freely and boldly expressive.His unique use of the simple, the geometric, and red, has become the defining feature of his artistic oeuvre. Cathelin attempted and successfully achieved the use of modernist representations of poetry in visual art within his own artworks. His paintings are thus the real embodiment of the wings that give freedom to our minds and enable us to become aware of the illimitable possibilities in human consciousness.
Cathelin is adept at using different shapes as elements for forming a vividly colored composition of wondrous splendor. The use of geometric shapes for distributing color has become his iconic painting style. He is highly sensitive to the texture of color, and adores using vibrant colors for creating vivid contrasts. With their dynamic layers of color and solid, weighted textures, his paintings are natural and unconstrained. Vases, flowers, churches, farmlands, ladies in fancy dress, passengers deep in contemplation--all these common scenes of daily life are the sources of his inspiration. We are able to identify an atmosphere of solemnity in many of his compositions, a style that can ignite both our physical and mental passions. This is why Cathelin's paintings, full of the rich sense of humanity, holds a uniquely global appeal.
The brushstrokes of the painting Iris au Fond Gris Clair are gracefully unrestrained. In terms of color, Cathelin refrained from the use of sweet, harmoniously warm tones and instead employed shades of beige and gray. The earthen wall complements the scarlet red of the irises, breaks up the rigidity of the overall composition, and imbues the strongly contrasting colors with a sense of dynamic harmony, thereby engendering vitality and and an ambiance of refreshing energy. Warm beige gray, creamy white, pale pink, and the pastel green of springtime verdure incorporated into the painting kindle a sense of romantic nostalgia. The beige gray background complements the bunch of flowers on the right of the painting so that the overall composition extends outwards. The irises of a serene bluish violet are extremely prominent with blossoms resembling a kaleidoscope of dancing butterflies. Very subtly, the artist has toned down the lush, verdant leaves into shades of pastel green so that both the cluster of leaves and the flowers positioned higher above accentuate the vivacity and livelihood of the blooming irises. Positioned lower down the canvas are scarlet red irises with large petals, long stems, and stamens facing the front of the image that inadvertently become the highlight of the composition. In the background, three violet irises and their sword-shaped leaves are delicately depicted high above the vase, particular prominent amidst the cluster of red below—figures of solitary pride and aloofness. Where the two colors converge, beige lines are used to outline the round vase, the shape of which contracts from the base up towards the middle. As if a bouquet had been placed randomly into the vase, the space between the flowers and the leaves, and between the flowers and the edge of the vase are casually and sentimentally depicted. The flaming reds and serene violets seem to belong to an alternative dimension of Cathelin’s soul, colors that have been engendered through the vitality of life.
Artists are adept at capturing the essence of form, a piece of scenery, or a bouquet of flowers; this is a profound truth that extends beyond reality: the discovery of the essence of things through their surface enables us to attain a sphere of life of perfect harmony. This work is vastly elegant, deeply poetic, and perfectly embodies the artist's love for natural sceneries. Through the use of dynamic colors and semi-realist techniques, Cathelin highlights the natural beauty of the subject matter. His richly colored works are often excerpts of scenes from the countries he has visited, including the Drôme region of France, Mexico, India, and Japan, and incorporate both local colors and textures. Each of Cathelin's works is like a richly poetic haiku.
Cathelin is a creator. Unintentionally, he has created a unique world of wide, open space that at the same time has contained boundless infinity into a tiny corner of the room--small enough to fit into a vase. His lived time and sensory time are intertwined into the so-called time that belongs only to the artist. What connects these times is the pursuit for harmony within his ideology--that is, his pursuit of revealing the essence of painting via strong expressive techniques, and the discovery of the essence of things through their surface so as to attain a sphere of life that is perfectly harmonious. His various approaches to details are extremely intriguing: he is able to depict the elegance of a hand gesture, the graceful suppleness of a woman's shoulders, the serenity contained in a still vase, and the rhythm of a posture. He is able to exhibit the dazzling beauty of fresh, blooming flowers, meticulously outline the forms of houses and furniture, capture the dynamism of mountains, and express the peacefulness of expansive fields of rye. Bernard Cathelin's paintings enable to us to experience the joy and peacefulness of the soul, to