Jean Cocteau
Bernard Buffet
BERNARD BUFFET, 1955. OIL ON CANVAS.
In the 1950s, Bernard Buffet was one of the most famous artists in the world. Talked about in the same breath as Picasso, at the age of 21 he was a star of Post-War Paris with a prolific output of paintings and solo shows every year. Buffet was known as a ‘Miserabilist’, an art movement of just one that was characterised by his long faced subjects, thick, impassioned black lines, palette of grays, and often bleak subject matter. He was internationally famous, escaping the confines of the art world to become a known entity to the general public who caused stampedes with each new exhibitions and work that adorned magazines, albums, plastic bags, postage stamps, and posters. Yet as his fame rose, so did his wealth and he began to live a wildly decadent life complete with a chauffeured Rolls-Royce and a castle in the countryside. His life seemed to be at odds with the style and subjects of his paintings, and as images of this decadence became proliferated, the public turned against Buffet. By the late 1960s, he was but a footnote in art history, though to look at his paintings now is to still see the same power, intensity, and misery that was the cause for so much celebration in the post-war years.