Bernard Buffet
Western style painter
Bernard Buffet (10 July 1928 - 4 October 1999) was a French painter. He is one of the most important figurative painters of the post-World War II period.
Born in Paris in 1928. Born in Paris in 1928 to a busy factory owner, his relationship with his father was tenuous. In 1943 he entered the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where in 1948 he was awarded the Critics' Prize, the most prestigious prize for new artists in Paris. From that time on, he was known as a genius painter. He developed his own style of painting, characterized by hard, sharp, thick wire-like outlines and almost monotone colours, which, together with the anxious expressions on the faces of his figures, express the artist's anxious and desolate post-World War II emotional landscape. The female models are often his wife, Annabelle. He was awarded the Legion of Honour in 1971 and became a member of the Académie Française in 1974. He was awarded the Legion of Honour in 1971, and became a member of the Académie Française in 1974. His loneliness never abated, even while he lived with his beloved wife Annabelle. In his later years he suffered from Parkinson's disease and took his own life at the age of 71.
Buffet's fame came too early, and his later work has been criticised by some for tending to become rather stale. He was introduced to Japan at an early stage, and in 1973 the Bernard Buffet Museum was opened in Nagaizumi, Shizuoka Prefecture, which houses and exhibits only his work.
Masterpieces
His black lines and restrained colours express the anxiety and emptiness of the post-World War II period. He left behind a number of paintings and prints.
The Blue Bullfighter (1960, Musée Bernard Buffet)
Carmen (1962, Musée Bernard Buffet)
Madame Annabelle (Bridgestone Museum)
The Church of Arforville (1985)