124 - Edouard PIGNON (Bully-les-Mines 1905 – La Couture-Boussey 1993)

Edouard PIGNON (Bully-les-Mines 1905 – La Couture-Boussey 1993) Portrait of a Rooster, 1959 Oil on original canvas 91.5 x 72.5 cm Signed and dated lower right: Pignon 59 Bears on the stretcher bar the shipping label from Express Transport Ltd Transports, as well as the label and number 92 Bears on the stretcher bar the handwritten inscription “Les repiqueurs” The stretcher bears the former label from the Musée National d’Art Moderne de Paris—Edouard Pignon Exhibition—Portrait of a Rooster 1959—87—Belonged to the artist Provenance: Edouard Pignon Collection Private collection Exhibition: Edouard Pignon and Jean-Louis Ferrier, Fifty Paintings from 1936 to 1962; Pignon’s remarks on painting and reality, Paris, Galerie de France, 1962, page 43 (reproduced in black and white) Edouard Pignon, Musée National d’Art Moderne, Paris; July–October 1966; catalog no. 87, reproduced “I recently heard a critic say that before the abstract artists came to power, all painting was anecdotal. […] There is a rhythm, a mastery of color that no one can even attempt to match. […] Moreover, what I criticize most about abstract painting is that it is more of an imitation than a creation. An imitation of light, for example, rather than a creation of light. This great rebel is often naturalistic; it is often a copy, with little change, of a reality seen from very close up—not from within, but with one’s nose pressed against a small detail and viewed through a magnifying glass. So what’s new under the sun? I remember, when I was young, I used to go to the Louvre and copy Delacroix, Tintoretto, Veronese, Rubens, and Rembrandt. Well! No one will ever be able to take that away from me.” Edouard Pignon, in *Fifty Paintings from 1936 to 1962: Pignon on Painting and Reality*, Paris, Galerie de France, 1962, pp. 40–44.