74 - Bernard Damiano (1926–2000)

Bernard Damiano (1926–2000) Nude Woman, c. 1966 Oil pastel and pencil Signed lower right Dimensions: Sheet 29.7 × 21 cm (11 ⅝ × 8 ¼ in.) — Image: nearly full sheet Condition: good condition, unframed Provenance: Yves Guérin’s “Livre d’Or,” assembled between 1963 and 1992 (provenance from a single source). Damiano was a direct part of the Nice art collecting scene: a member of the Nice Expressionist group, he exhibited at the Palais de la Méditerranée in Nice in 1960 and at the Menton Biennale (1960, 1964, 1966, 1970). Description: A seated female nude, expressionistic and striking—deliberate distortion, vibrant reds, greens, and oranges, a head in profile sketched in the upper right—in Damiano’s style, influenced by Dubuffet, Art Brut, and CoBrA; his female nudes are animated by a “genetic delirium” à la de Kooning. Of Italian origin, a stonemason and then a cabinetmaker before devoting himself to painting, Bernard Damiano was encouraged from his very first exhibition in Nice (1958) by the painter Sylvain Vigny; he exhibited at Bernheim-Jeune in Paris and at the Nationalmuseum in Stockholm, and is represented in the collection of the Musée d’art moderne de Saint-Étienne and the Carros Contemporary Art Center. He never dated his works. Signed by hand.