'Pierrot's Lament' by Arbit Blatas, Paris Post-Impressionist, Academie Chaumiere, Academie Julian, Salon d'Automne

Description

Signed lower right, 'Arbit Blatas' (Lithuanian, 1908-1999) and with number and limitation, '123/195', lower left.

Lithuanian born, Arbit Blatas first … more Signed lower right, 'Arbit Blatas' (Lithuanian, 1908-1999) and with number and limitation, '123/195', lower left.

Lithuanian born, Arbit Blatas first studied in Paris at the Academie de la Grande Chaumiere and, subsequently, at the Academie Julian. He was a member of the Salon d'Automne where he also exhibited. Other exhibition venues included the Carnegie Institute, the Pennsylvania Academy, the Santa Barbara Museum and the Rhode Island School of Design.

An artist of great range, his vivid colors and joie de vivre extend through his entire canon of paintings: landscapes, portraits and still-lives. The distinguished French art critic, Jean Bouret, summed the artist up in this way: "He is color, his palette is color, exuberant and sensual, as is the man." On the other end of Blatas' artistic spectrum, the noted Italian art historian Enzo di Martini wrote of the Monument of the Holocaust: "In complete contrast to his paintings, these bronzes are hammered and chiseled in anger and tragedy."

In 1929 he began to exhibit regularly at the Salon D'Automne and the Salon des Tuileries in Paris. At the age of twenty-one, he became the youngest member of the School of Paris and a friend and colleague to many of the great figures in the Parisian art world such as Vlaminck, Utrillo, Soutine, Picasso, Derain and Matisse. Blatas eventually painted or sculpted them all and his forty-nine portraits in oil and bronze are considered a unique document of that period in Paris. The artist exhibited regularly in the principal galleries of New York, Paris and London. His works are also included in some of the most valued private international art collections.

Partial List of Exhibitions:
NEW YORK - Pierre Matisse Gallery; Associated American Artists; French Art Gallery; Bignou Gallery; Fine Arts Associates; Hirschl & Adler Galleries, Inc.; Eastlake Gallery; Beacon Hill Fine Arts Gallery
PARIS - Galerie Zborowski; Salon D'Automne; Salon des Tuileries; Galerie Mouradian-Van Leer; Galerie Mouradian-Vallotton; Salon Populiste; Galerie de l'Elysée; Galerie André Weil; Galerie Bernheim-Jeune; Galerie René Drouet
LONDON - Wildenstein Gallery; Grosvenor Gallery; Archer Gallery; Fine Arts Society; Redfern Gallery
VENICE - Gritti Palace; Chiesa di San Samuele; Teatro Goldoni; Galleria Graziussi; Chiesa San Stae
TREVISO - Teatro Comunale
LAUSANNE - Galerie Vallotton
TORONTO - Goethe Institute
MONTREAL - Gallery Moos
SYDNEY - Holdsworth Gallery.

Partial List of Collections:
USA - Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Museum of the City of New York; National Portrait Gallery; the Smithsonian Institution; Carnegie Institute, Pittsburgh; Rochester Museum; Virginia Museum; Delgado Museum, New Orleans; Palm Springs Desert Museum; Wichita Art Museum
FRANCE - Jeu de Paume, Paris; Le Centre Pompidou, Paris; Musée Bourdelle, Paris; Musée de Boulogne; Musée de Céret; Musée de Grenoble
SWITZERLAND - Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne
ITALY - Ca' Pesaro, Venice; Museo d'Arte Moderna, Venice
WALES - National Museum of Cardiff
ISRAEL - Jerusalem Museum; Tel Aviv Museum
REUNION - Musée de la Réunion

Awards and Honors:

* 1947 - Elected life member of the Salon D'Automne (France)
* 1978 - Chevalier de la Legion D'Honneur (France)
* 1980 - Gold Medal "Venezia Riconoscente" - presented by Mayor Mario Rigo
* 1982 - Medal of Masada (Israel)
* 1982 - Special Honor of the City of New York
* 1987 - Commandeur - Médaille de Vermeil (City of Paris)
* 1993 - Gold Medal of Honor, City of Venice (Italy) - presented by the President of Italy
* 1993 - Presidential Medal of Italy
* 1994 - Officier de la Legion D'Honneur (France)
* 2008 (posthumous) --Commander Cross of the Order of Merit of Lithuania

Reference:
E. Benezit, Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs, et Graveurs, Jacques Busse, 1999 Nouvelle Édition, Gründ 1911, Vol. 2, p. 389; Who Was Who in American Art 00 Years of Artists in America, Peter Hastings Falk, Sound View Press 1999, Vol. 1, p. 344; Vollmer Allgemeines Lexikon der Bildenden Künstler des 20. Jarhhunderts, Hans Vollmer, Deutscher Taschenbuch Verlag 1992, Vol. 1, p. 61; Mallett’s Index of Artists, Supplement, Daniel Trowbridge Mallett, Peter Smith: New York 1948 Edition, R.R. Bowker Company 1940, p. 26; et al. less