94 - SZAFRAN, Sam (1934–2019)

SZAFRAN, Sam (1934–2019) “Untitled” (staircase), 1994 Watercolor on silk, signed 212 x 112 cm Provenance: Galerie Claude Bernard, 7-9 rue des Beaux Arts, Paris 6th arrondissement Private French collection Bibliography: J. Clair, Sam Szafran, Geneva, Éditions Skira, 1996, reproduced in color on p. 188, no. 7 This work will be included in the artist’s Catalogue Raisonné, currently being prepared by Ms. Julia Drost. In this work, Sam Szafran explores the world of staircases—an emblematic motif in his work—which he transforms into a fascinating and introspective space. Through watercolor on silk, the artist plays with transparency, light, shadows, and the delicacy of the line to construct a complex architecture, where lines and perspectives intertwine to the point of disorienting our sense of direction. This dynamic also evokes the language of cinema, to which Szafran’s visual culture may have been attuned: the framing, shifts in perspective, and the movement of the gaze suggest an almost cinematic motion, causing the architecture to seem animated, breaking free from its apparent stillness.