Bernard Buffet by Mona Iskandar
Few artists have had ups and downs during their lifetime, as did the French painter Bernard Buffet. He became very popular at twenty, followed by a drastic fall in his thirties. Then, later he was showered with prizes and accolades, only to be discarded after his death. Now, eighteen years since he left us, the western world has woken up to rediscover his qualities, and his paintings have been selling at very high figures in the art market, and retrospectives are mounted to familiarise the young generation with his work.
The French artist has been compared by his admirers to Mozart as a child prodigy whose creativity started very early, becoming a super star at 20. But, he has also been ridiculed and reviled by some of the elite of the art world who accused him of repetition, overproduction or bad taste. “His oeuvre is one of the greatest of the 20th Century”, described him one art critic, only to be soon attacked.
Buffet was born in Paris and studied at the National School of the Fine Arts. In 1946, at 18, he had his first painting exposed, a selfportrait, and as of 1947 till his death in 1999, he had at least one solo exhibition in Paris every year. His recognisable style made him so popular and financially successful, that even Picasso his contemporary did not reach.
In 1950, the French painter met Pierre Bergé, who became a big industrialist and businessman and recently passed away. They were both young and had a passionate relationship until 1958 when Bergé left Buffet for the still unknown designer Yves Saint Laurent, to become his lifetime lover and business partner. The same year Buffet met the writer, actress and singer Annabel Schwob, and also a big love affair and marriage within a few months; she became his one great love and together, they had two daughters and a son.
As of 1947, Buffet started his angular style, which classified him as ‘Expressionist’ and ‘Miserabilist’. His strong and unforgettable style helped his popularity. He used little paint, limiting his colours to greys, black, browns and greens. His strong, dark lines, grey wrinkled faces, tense hands, and cadaverous figures gave a dramatic impact. Some work depicted human brutality and torment, as growing up during the Nazi occupation and years of deprivation showed in his art. With his masterly technique and inventiveness he could not but have an impact on the viewer. He is quoted saying: “Painting, we do not talk about it, we do not analyse it, we feel it.”
In 1955, Buffet started painting his famous clowns, which launched him to the peek of popularity. His clowns appeared everywhere, on posters, magazines and in homes. Even with colour, their haggard and sad features did not hide the pessimism. He
reportedly said: “Abstract painting is limited and boring, while figurative art is unlimited.”
His critics thought he lived in the 19th Century, when the 20th Century was going through so many revolutionary changes. Yet he was always popular and sought by the public that a friend said of him: “No artist anywhere has ever been as popular in his lifetime as Buffet”. But this popularity possibly worked against him. As he made a lot of money, he became ostentatious and alienated people by buying a castle, a boat, a Rolls Royce and an island before he was 30. The post-war society and French intelligentsia did not appreciate such a display of wealth, and preferred the image of a bohemian artist. He had his pictures taken next to his chauffeur driven Rolls with his castle behind him. People saw this showiness as hypocrisy, contradicting what he painted.
Buffet’s wife Annabel became his muse and his only model. He painted her in all possible poses and even dedicated an exhibition in 1961 wholly to her, calling it “Portraits of Annabel”. She was devastated when he died, writing: “…You have committed suicide and that day I was the one to die”. She passed away six years later. Buffet had discovered in 1997 that he had Parkinson’s disease and two years later, in 1999, when he could not paint any more, he ended his life. According to Annabel, Buffet was a workaholic and from the beginning she realised that she could not win a fight against this other mistress. He planned everything before killing himself, completing his last exhibition, which he called “Death” and sending it to his gallerist, saying he will not be attending the opening.
Buffet was a prolific artist and painted more than 8.000 canvases. He was very popular and appreciated in Japan, and The Bernard Buffet Museum was founded in 1973 by the collector Krichiro Okano. In 1988, a large extension to the museum was inaugurated. It displays between 1.000 and 2.000 works, depending on different sources.