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6/10/2011

Pascin

Aktis Gallery, London

Pascin was born Julius Mordecai Pincas in 1885 in Vidin, Bulgaria. His parents were Sephardic Jews and his father a wealthy grain merchant. Aged 17, he left home to go to art school in Vienna, living for a while in Budapest, Berlin and Munich. He collaborated with the renowned German satirical magazine, ‘Simplicissimus’, and later changed his name to Pascin, an anagram of Pincas. In 1905, he arrived in Paris, the ‘City of Lights’ and the art capital of the world. Here, he settled in Montparnasse where he met other artists who had fled Central Europe to avoid anti- Semitism: Kisling, Chagall, Soutine, Krémègne, along with Modigliani, Vlaminck and later, Foujita. The group formed what, in 1925, the art critic André Warnod called the “Ecole de Paris,” and Pascin was one of its leaders. A regular on the Left Bank café circuit, he warranted a whole chapter in Ernest Hemingway’s Paris memoire, ‘A Moveable Feast.’ Always dressed in black, with a bowler and white scarf, he was a dandy: a prince from the Orient, who loved women, revelled in the erotic, travelled and, above all, sketched incessantly. His natural form of expression was drawing: it was his language, his way of conveying his humour along with his sadness. With a line that was quick and forceful, a stroke that was swift but sure, he depicted scenes of daily life which he caught by observing the gestures, attitudes and expressions of his contemporaries. It was people who interested him; nothing escaped his sharp eye.

In the twenties, Pascin perfected a painting technique using oil diluted in gasoline, creating mother-of-pearl tones close to those of pastels on a very fine canvas. The result was sensual, voluptuous and airy: art critics called it his “pearly period”. He did not follow the latest art trends nor did he belong to any particular movement, seeking above all to remain free and independent. Pascin’s love life was tumultuous. He married Hermine David, a miniaturist painter, but was consumed by a violent and destructive passion for Lucy Krohg, a model at the Académie Matisse. Pascin found great success during his life. He was part of the famous Armory Show in New York in 1913; Flechtheim exhibited his work in Düsseldorf, Bernheim-Jeune in Paris, and Knoedler in New York. John Quinn collected him, and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Jr., sponsored his posthumous New York retrospective. Albert Barnes, the famous American collector, bought a great deal of Pascin's work (which apparently filled the offices and hallways of his institute) and wrote about it in his 1925 The Art in Painting. Pascin, who was at the summit of his career and whose talent was recognised by peers, committed suicide on June 2, 1930 in his Paris atelier. All the galleries closed in a sign of mourning on the day he was buried, 7 June 1930. It was the end of the crazy years that marked the “Roaring Twenties”.

The exhibition includes about fifty works on paper, watercolours and drawings, as well as several oil paintings, some of them from the collection of Guy Krogh, the heir to Pascin's work. Pascin’s farewell letter to Lucy, and several richly-illustrated books will complement the exhibition. The exhibition will be accompanied by a scholarly and fully-illustrated catalogue.

Pascin’s work is represented in numerous museums in America, Europe, Japan and Australia, including the: Museum of Modern Art, NY; Metropolitan Museum of Art, NY; The Art Institute of Chicago; The Salomon R. Guggenheim Museum, NY; Nasjonalgalleriet, Oslo; Musée d’Art Moderne de la ville de Paris; Musée des Beaux Arts de Lyon; Musée d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou

For images and press enquiries, please contact Sophie Money smoney@moneyplusart.com 0207 801 9421 or 07876 402544

Pascin, Two women, two men, 1903, Simplicissimus, Watercolour and ink on paper (15 x 14 cm)

Opening: october 7th, 6 pm

Aktis Gallery
10 Park Place SW1A 1LP - London
Opening hours: Tuesday – Saturday: 10am-2pm; 3pm-6pm

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