Maxime Testu

Prélude au yacht - Abstract painting by French contemporary artist

2020

Matthias Alfen’s series of Janus figures are an innovation in figural art predicated on the advances made by the Futurist sculptor and painter Umberto Boccioni and the Modernist Alberto Giacometti. The qualities of chance and spontaneity, necessarily excluded in the sculptural work, are clearly evident in his drawings and paintings. “Psychograms” of unchoreographed hand movements display wide variation, repeatedly playing through one form after another. In the end, this multitude of variation serves to enhance the logic, consistency, and seductively rich appearance of Alfen’s designed sculptural works. Represented by Gallery Schuckin in New York, Paris, France, and Moscow, Russia. Matthias Alfen’s was strongly influenced by his family’s experience during World War II. His grandfather Klemens Alfen (1894-1955) was an accomplished painter and photographer, recognized for his landscape photography and for his technique (Special Honors for Excellence in Photo-Print Technology, 1932). He enjoyed the friendship and support of many in the artistic community, a community largely influenced by its German Jewish members. Having lost his entire circle of friends under Nazi oppression. Klemens, although not Jewish, also suffered under the Nazis for refusing to join them and struggling in post-war Germany, which had nothing to offer an artist like him, Klemens took his own life. At around the age of 16 he worked for some weeks as an assistant at his uncle’s art studio. Fritz Koenig...

Robert Beauchamp, American (1923-1995) Untitled Hand signed lower right, titled verso. MIxed media oil painting on heavy art paper sight: 22 3/4 x 29 1/2 inches frame dimensions: 23 1/4 x 30 1/4 x 1 1/4 inches, metal frame with glazing Provenance: Private Collection. Frame inscribed 'Property of AT&T' Bears label from their corporate art collection. Robert Beauchamp (1923 – March 1995) was an American figurative painter and arts educator. Beauchamp's paintings and drawings are known for depicting dramatic creatures and figures with expressionistic colors. His work was described in the New York Times as being "both frightening and amusing,". He was a Guggenheim Fellow and a student of Hans Hofmann. Robert Beauchamp was born in Denver, Colorado in 1923. He had three brothers and three sisters, and the children were orphaned by both parents by the time Beauchamp was three. The family grew up impoverished due to the Great Depression, living in a community house with other families. As a child he dabbled in art but it wasn't until high school that he began taking art classes. When not creating art he also played sports; football and basketball, and enjoyed chemistry and geology. He was told he was good at drawing, and replaced study hall classes with art classes, receiving instruction and inspiration from a Welsh teacher named R. Idris Thomas. While in high school Beauchamp would go, every Monday, to the public library and a local museum where he would read books about art; specifically French painting, as assigned by Thomas. Beauchamp absorbed the tenets of European Modernism and American Abstract Expressionism—with which he eventually broke. While abstraction, with its focus on color and form, underlies his compositions, he filled canvas and paper with psychologically acute portraits of himself and others, nudes, animals, and objects of all kinds. Beauchamp would spend upwards of four hours a day in the art room and eventually won the Carter Memorial Prize, which provided a scholarship to the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center. At Colorado Springs he studied under Boardman Robinson, painting landscapes in nature. Beauchamp eventually joined the Navy and then returned to Colorado Springs to continue his studies. Traveling the world as an Armed Guard, he spent a year and a half at sea and the rest of the three years in San Francisco. Seeking to make money, and to follow his love for a girl, Beauchamp decided to attend Cranbrook Academy of Art from 1947–1948. There he studied pottery, believing one could "make more money selling pots than you could selling paintings." He described his experience at Cranbrook as intimidating and claustrophobic, and eventually switched to sculpture before switching to painting. Beauchamp moved to New York City in the early 1950s and was involved in the Tenth Street galleries, which provided outlets for more experimental artists and the second generation of abstract expressionists. Despite his involvement with 10th Street and friendships with abstract artists, abstract art never interested in him. He showed at numerous galleries in New York and Provincetown, socializing with gallery owners, artists and collectors. His first exhibition was at the Tanager Gallery in New York, he also showed during the 1950s at the Hansa Gallery. In New York and Provincetown he studied under Hans Hofmann Eventually he felt that abstract expressionism became dull and stalemated. During the 1960s he showed at the Green Gallery. C. 1960 he was awarded a Fulbright Award allowing him to travel to La Romola, Italy. He traveled frequently to cities such as Rome and worked constantly. Beauchamp returned to the states and lived in Provincetown at Walter Gutman...