Rémi Blanchard (1958-1993) Untitled 1983 Oil and collage on canvas signed and dated on back 168 x 167 cm Provenance: > Galerie Yvon Lambert, Paris (label on back) Although Rémi Blanchard is one of the founding members of figuration narrative (alongside Robert Combas, Hervé Di Rosa, François Boisrond...) his work is less well known to the general public than that of his counterparts. Yet he was the first to be exhibited by Yvon Lambert in 1982, after having been shown by the Holly Solomon Gallery in New York as early as 1981! Born in Nantes into a sibling group of 10 children, he finds his inspiration mainly in his childhood memories and the caravan vacations he spent with his family. Our canvas bears witness to this creative period, when figurative artists borrowed from popular references (comics, graffiti, "Sunday painters"). In a context of emulation between the United States and France, Blanchard regularly rubbed shoulders with the great names of American bad painting: Keith Haring, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Kenny Scharf... His untimely death kept his work out of the public eye for a while, but there's no doubt that his name will live on as one of the most important of the period.