Jean-Claude FAHRI, born 1940 in Paris, died 2012 in Monaco Composition - Relief 3L3, 1965 Paint and mixed media in relief Signed, titled and dated on back 122 x 203 (small accidents) Provenance: Estate of a major southern collector Jean-Claude FAHRI's paintings and compositions are rare on the market, particularly such a relief from 1965, produced quite early in the output of this major 20th-century artist. In 1957, he moved to Nice, where he took drawing classes at the Arts Décoratifs de Nice. Here he met the leading artists of the École de Nice: Ben, Gilli Alocco, Malaval and the New Realists Arman and Raysse, who introduced him to the critic Pierre Restany. In 1965/1966, he worked on "Motorcolors", followed by sculptures in Plexiglas and metal. For a time, he worked with César. From 1968 onwards (exhibition at Galerie Iris Clert), he devoted himself mainly to Plexiglas sculptures (with the support of the "Polivar" factories): columns and disks, pyramids, and then so-called "variable geometry" sculptures. It was in this direction that he developed his work with monumental works. Claude Fournet, former director of the Museums of Nice, comments: "His mastery of plastic materials, which was the primary element of his research, is combined with a functionality of form that he borrows from the world of Futurism and the Bauhaus. It is with this deviation that all artists today are founded, an act of playful appropriation that masterfully places Jean-Claude Farhi in the line of the Nouveaux-Réalistes when, playing with shapes in his highly colored material, he offers us sculptures that are so many outlines, drawn in the light of pure color. The artist is represented in numerous museums and private collections in Europe, America and Asia, and has been commissioned by the French government on several occasions.