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Lot Essay
The authenticity of this work has been confirmed by the Comité Jean Fautrier.
To be included in the forthcoming Jean Fautrier Catalogue Raisonné being prepared by Marie-José Lefort, Galerie Jeanne Castel, Paris.
Executed circa 1943, Profil refers to Fautrier's most highly celebrated series of Otages of the same period and was executed under the same traumatic circumstances.
In January 1943, Fautrier was arrested by the Gestapo on suspicion of being involved in Resistance activity. Released shortly afterwards, through the intervention of the German sculptor, Arno Breker, it was arranged for him to be accommodated for safety reasons in the grounds of a clinic for mental patients at Chatenay-Malabry on the outskirts of Paris.
Fautrier's work of this period, and in particular the Otages (Hostage) series, refer directly to the events that occurred surrounding woods, where German forces tortured and executed hostages. On several occasions, Fautrier heard the terrified screams of these anonymous victims and through his work he aimed to create a testament to them.
During this terrifying time, Fautrier underwent a profound sense of isolation and powerlessness out of which grew an extraordinary art that claws at the essence of the artist's existential sense of humanity. Writing of this time, he explained that he was "alone to the point of longing for the atrocious and total annihilation of everything... . Alone, but ultimately there is a total expansion of being in solitude - it is in this state which in every case offers the purest and the most absolute solutions." (Jean Fautrier quoted in: Exh. cat., Hamburg, Kunstverein, Jean Fautrier, 1973)
From this profound emotional nihilism, Fautrier produced a number of extraordinary small panel paintings that each depict a half-obliterated human face, which, as in the present work, seems to delineate the material remains of the human spirit or its ravaged essence. The purity and simplicity of these profoundly moving works is realised by Fautrier's delicate mastery of the materials. The material presence of the impasto is handled with a reverential sensitivity that imbues it with a gentle life. This is deliberately contrasted with, and somewhat abused by, the crude brushworks that awkwardly delineate the profile of a human head. In interacting with his materials in such a subtle and articulate way, Fautrier 'profiles' not just the fragility of the victim's humanity but also conveys something of the awful brutality of the crimes against them.
To be included in the forthcoming Jean Fautrier Catalogue Raisonné being prepared by Marie-José Lefort, Galerie Jeanne Castel, Paris.
Executed circa 1943, Profil refers to Fautrier's most highly celebrated series of Otages of the same period and was executed under the same traumatic circumstances.
In January 1943, Fautrier was arrested by the Gestapo on suspicion of being involved in Resistance activity. Released shortly afterwards, through the intervention of the German sculptor, Arno Breker, it was arranged for him to be accommodated for safety reasons in the grounds of a clinic for mental patients at Chatenay-Malabry on the outskirts of Paris.
Fautrier's work of this period, and in particular the Otages (Hostage) series, refer directly to the events that occurred surrounding woods, where German forces tortured and executed hostages. On several occasions, Fautrier heard the terrified screams of these anonymous victims and through his work he aimed to create a testament to them.
During this terrifying time, Fautrier underwent a profound sense of isolation and powerlessness out of which grew an extraordinary art that claws at the essence of the artist's existential sense of humanity. Writing of this time, he explained that he was "alone to the point of longing for the atrocious and total annihilation of everything... . Alone, but ultimately there is a total expansion of being in solitude - it is in this state which in every case offers the purest and the most absolute solutions." (Jean Fautrier quoted in: Exh. cat., Hamburg, Kunstverein, Jean Fautrier, 1973)
From this profound emotional nihilism, Fautrier produced a number of extraordinary small panel paintings that each depict a half-obliterated human face, which, as in the present work, seems to delineate the material remains of the human spirit or its ravaged essence. The purity and simplicity of these profoundly moving works is realised by Fautrier's delicate mastery of the materials. The material presence of the impasto is handled with a reverential sensitivity that imbues it with a gentle life. This is deliberately contrasted with, and somewhat abused by, the crude brushworks that awkwardly delineate the profile of a human head. In interacting with his materials in such a subtle and articulate way, Fautrier 'profiles' not just the fragility of the victim's humanity but also conveys something of the awful brutality of the crimes against them.