Libby Ramage

Tre Cani, Original Painting

2021

Mixed media assemblage sculpture/painting. Hand signed and dated recto and verso. Provenance: Galerie Alphonse Chave, bears their label verso Michel, Fernand (1913-1999) Born in 1913 in Neuviller-lès-Badonviller in the Vosges, Fernand Michel began working at the age of twelve in a Landes pottery factory. When his mother died, he went to live in Alsace with an aunt and became an art bookbinder. A lover of poetry, he bonded with Jean Vodaine, Jean Dubuffet and Alphonse Chave (Alphonse Chave was an art lover, dealer and collector. On November 15, 1947 in Vence, under the name Les Mages, he opened a contemporary art gallery which would also become a high place of art brut and unique art . The gallery took its final name - Galerie Alphonse Chave - in 1960. He exhibited Dado, Philippe Dereux, Jean Dubuffet, Max Ernst, Henri michaux, Louis Pons, Man Ray, Dorothea Tanning, Zao Wou-ki as well as other creators.) Around 1962, he began carving zinc after finding a plaque in a landfill. From this period, he made numerous assemblies, most often of large dimensions, which he called "zinc works" where buxom bathers, Venus callipyges, nuns and holy nitouches rub shoulders. The corroded and battered material over the years, used as is, gives his works a certain harshness, however softened by more ornamental pieces. Fernand Michel lived in Montpellier. He died in 1999. His work is present in the collection of La Fabuloserie in Dicy. Publications Revue "Création Franche" N ° 16, November 1998 Catalog "Donation Claude Massé", March 1999 Catalog "Collection Création Franche - 1989-2010", September 2010 Revue "Création Franche" N ° 38, June 2013 Franche Creation, Special Issue N ° 2, April 2015 His son Patrick Michel's collection is housed in Montpellier in the Musee d’arts brut, singulier and autres. "I used to accompany my father to his exhibitions since he was exhibited every year at the Galerie Chave in Vence. I still remember that Alphonse Chave once offered me a little toy (a car!) from his shop. I therefore met the artists Philippe Dereux, Armand Avril, François Ozenda, Pascal Verbena, Louis Pons, Jean Vodaine, Henri Comby, Fred Deux and Eugène Gabritschevsky- I took the decision to create the museum in order to save (and protect) my father’s work- my father was often classified under the ‘Art Brut’ label but in fact he belonged to the ‘Singular Art’ label... The term Art Brut exists since Jean Dubuffet gave it to us in 1945, covering self-taught and marginalised artists..The terms Outsider Art and Art Brut are fine with me- I place Nek Chand before Le Facteur Cheval. I also like the Art Brut artists Augustin Lesage...

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