Luis Fernández López (1900-1973) - Le chat

LUIS FERNÁNDEZ LÓPEZ Oviedo, 1900 – Paris, 1973 Le Chat Oil on canvas 46 × 33 cm Signed in the lower right corner. A work of great expressive force by Luis Fernández López, one of the most singular personalities of the Spanish vanguard of the 20th century and of the so-called School of Paris. Based in Paris since 1924, Fernández came into contact with the main currents of European modernity, evolving from purism and geometric abstraction toward surrealism and, subsequently, toward a deeply personal figurative painting, austere and of extraordinary psychological intensity. The Bilbao Fine Arts Museum preserves and documents his work extensively and confirms the existence of the catalog raisonné of paintings, drawings, prints and sculptures 1900–1973, published in 2010 by the Azcona Foundation and the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum of Asturias. A work with important documentation and provenance The painting is accompanied by a certificate dated in Paris on June 8, 1999, signed by Cyrille Cohen, Commissaire-Priseur, of the house S.C.P. Calmels–Chambre–Cohen, 12 rue Rossini, Paris. In that document the work is expressly identified as: Luis Fernández, Le Chat, oil on canvas, signed bottom right, 46 × 33 cm. The certificate also records that the painting had been presented as Lot No. 47 at the auction of Art Moderne et Contemporain held at Drouot-Richelieu, Paris, on April 12, 1999. In that sale the work began with an estimate of 60,000–80,000 French francs and achieved a hammer price of 100,000 FRF, equivalent to €15,245, clearly exceeding the high estimate. This Parisian auction provenance constitutes an especially interesting element within the piece’s history. Provenance: Calmels–Chambre–Cohen, Hôtel Drouot-Richelieu, Paris. Art Moderne et Contemporain, April 12, 1999, Lot 47. Hammer price: 100,000 FRF / €15,245. Private collection since 1999. Documentation: Cyrille Cohen, Commissaire-Priseur, Paris, certificate dated June 8, 1999; documentation and image of the 1999 auction; bibliography relating to the catalog raisonné of Luis Fernández. To state in the auction catalog that this particular exemplar “figures in the catalog raisonné,” I would add the catalog number and the exact page if you have them. The photograph you sent me confirms the existence of the catalog raisonné, but does not yet show the page where Le Chat appears. With that page we can turn it into an indisputable bibliographic reference. Luis Fernández and Picasso The importance of Fernández within European painting of his generation is also linked to his close artistic relationship with Pablo Picasso, whom he met in Paris in 1934. It was not simply a matter of a chance relationship: Fernández showed works to Picasso to obtain his opinion, and the documentation preserved by the Bilbao Fine Arts Museum records the extraordinary impression that Fernández’s painting made on him. On one occasion Picasso even said of his paintings that they thrilled him and that he looked at them continually, precisely because of the difficulty of understanding how they were executed. This relationship places Fernández in the intellectual core of Parisian vanguard. His work, however, has always maintained an independent personality: slow painting, rigorous, with execution extremely meditated and distant from any mass commercial production. Le Chat In Le Chat the artist transforms a seemingly domestic motif into an unsettling and monumental image. The cat occupies almost the entire surface of the canvas, built with broad brushstrokes, layers of matter and strong contrasts of greens, ochres, blacks, whites and earth tones. The large yellow eyes and the deliberate distortion of the face produce that mix of attraction and strangeness characteristic of Fernández’s figurative period. The composition demonstrates his ability to transform reality without abandoning it, something that precisely attracted Picasso’s attention. The figure appears to emerge from a dark background while the painting matter, impastos and drawing interweave to turn the animal into an almost totemic presence. In terms of format, subject, visual power and, above all, for its documented Parisian provenance, the 1999 certificate and the reasoned bibliography of the artist, this is a work especially attractive to collectors of Spanish avant-garde painting and the School of Paris.

估價:$22,404.68

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