Andre Marfaing

André Marfaing was born in Toulouse (Haute-Garonne) in 1925. He studied Law, worked a few years as a lawyer, and then he began painting as an autodidact. He followed in sculpture and painting classes, and then in 1949, he left Toulouse for Paris to settle in the vicinity of Paris (Meudon, Vanves).

Over the years, and the fortunes he met Fernand Léger, Estève, Manessier, Bissière, Schneider, Soulages and many other artists, poets and writers. Until 1953, his painting was figurative: subjects are traditional, nature and purpose, however were painted in a more evocative way than descriptive one. He married in 1953, and the couple moved to Paris. From the beginning of the 50s, André Marfaing took part in the traditional Parisian Salons: Exhibition of Young Painters, Surindépendants, comparaisons Salon, Salon de Mai, and then, from 1954 and regularly in the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles.

Throughout his artistic career, Marfaing took part in numerous national and international exhibitions. In the second part of the 50s, Marfaing evolved to an abstraction compared to a lyrical abstraction, with energetic gestures, and using raw materials at first.

The first personal exhibition of the artist was organized in Claude Bernard’s gallery (Paris) in 1958.Followed many exhibitions of his work in France and abroad: paintings, collages, wash, works on paper, etchings, lithographs, illustrations, illustrated books. Gradually, the artist would use only black. "Black is the most natural means of expression" he says.

His art is deep, the artist wondered and constantly explored the conflict between darkness and light, between empty and full, between nothing and matter, is an art of spirituality. After the death of the artist, many retrospectives were organized in 1987: the Gallery Ariel presented a set of large format, the Gallery Clivages showed his last paintings, the Gallery Erval exhibited the wash and the Gallery Biren presented his etchings. The Salons des Réalités Nouvelles displayed also six paintings the artist had created for his participation in the Salon. Andre Marfaing remained committed to a radical abstraction. He adopted a restraint style, with works in which the artist achieved that balance where the stretching of the line responds to writing stable volumes.