Lot Essay
To be included in the Atlan Catalogue Raisonné under no. 1607 being prepared by Denise and Camille Atlan.
This work, executed in 1959, a year before the artist died, demonstrates the strengths of Atlan's late oeuvre. Exhibitions of his work in Paris won him wide acclaim, and the paintings executed after 1955 are regarded by critics as his most complete. Atlan's friendship with the artists of the CoBrA Movement partly explains his preference for bright colours and simple, primitive designs, which is still evident in works such as this. However, the order inherent within the mature works is quite distinct. In the composition the brightly-coloured forms are succinctly defined by thick, carbonous, black lines. These lines vary in depth and texture as if they had been drawn with a loose crayon rather than oil paint. Atlan contrasts vibrant shades of yellow, red, and green, set out against these broad, black outlines, to create simple, curving forms. Many of Atlan's final works are composed of this exotic vocabulary of forms.
This work, executed in 1959, a year before the artist died, demonstrates the strengths of Atlan's late oeuvre. Exhibitions of his work in Paris won him wide acclaim, and the paintings executed after 1955 are regarded by critics as his most complete. Atlan's friendship with the artists of the CoBrA Movement partly explains his preference for bright colours and simple, primitive designs, which is still evident in works such as this. However, the order inherent within the mature works is quite distinct. In the composition the brightly-coloured forms are succinctly defined by thick, carbonous, black lines. These lines vary in depth and texture as if they had been drawn with a loose crayon rather than oil paint. Atlan contrasts vibrant shades of yellow, red, and green, set out against these broad, black outlines, to create simple, curving forms. Many of Atlan's final works are composed of this exotic vocabulary of forms.