Philippe Auge, French Surrealist Oil Painting Pears, Fruits Textured Still Life Art Deco Style

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Philippe Auge (French 1935-) Still-life with pears Medium: Oil on canvas Dimensions: canvas 8 1/4 by 10 1/4in., 21 by … Read more Philippe Auge (French 1935-) Still-life with pears Medium: Oil on canvas Dimensions: canvas 8 1/4 by 10 1/4in., 21 by 26cm. Hand signed upper left corner "Auge'" Provenance: Miami Beach estate private collection. Philippe Auge (Born 1935) is active/lives in France. Known for Surrealist Fruit and vegetable still life, exotic female figure painting and fabric design. Philippe Augé is one of the most accomplished painters of our time and a colorist of rare quality." With this unusually high praise from the modern master, George Braque, the young French artist Philippe Augé embarked on a painting career which, since the 1950's has catapulted him into a meaningful position in the contemporary art arena. Braque's assessment represents the quintessence of all the qualities associated with Augé's work today. Recognized primarily for his delicately balanced figures and lush still lifes, his paintings vibrate with a gamut of rich color which recalls instantly the panoply of renaissance painting. At first glance, the subjects have a quiet quality indicative of the influence of Surrealism - pulpy fruits, beautiful women clad in robes of luxurious fabrics, sensuous flowers, pastoral landscapes from region never seen by man - but a more serious study reveals something else; a surrealistic note, subtly introduced by means of a minuscule figure looming in the background Auge created still life works of extreme quality with the use of rich color and surreal imagery. After leaving France as a teenager, Auge traveled to Italy where he studied the art of many masters of the 15th and 16th centuries in the country's museums. It was when he returned to France that Braque took him under his wing and his career exploded, exhibiting all over the world from Paris to Beverly Hill, Rome, Athens and more. Today his works continued to be enjoyed by critics and collectors alike as they are display in such collections as the Museum of Modern Art (Paris). An elegant and substantial, mid-century figurative oil by this member of the second generation of the School of Paris. Auge exhibited widely and with success and was the recipient of numerous medals, prizes and juried awards. He is listed in all relevant art reference works including Benezit Dictionnaire des Peintres. We are pleased to offer a signature work from the artist's middle period. His work goes well with shabby chic interiors. Philippe Auge's paintings strike us from the start by their size, purity, refined elegance and the predominant role held by women. At first sight, one realizes that this man could truly have worked in the world of fashion because of the care he devotes to producing particular effects with the dresses he puts on them which would not have seemed out of place in a fashion show. And then, when one takes a serious look at his biography, one discovers that he did indeed work in haute couture, and, what is more, in Italy. He created materials for the greatest designers. He then lived in this particular universe where women inspired him with his most beautiful sets of clothes, his most marvelous and exuberant costumes. Phillipe Auge, who then went back to his paintings and paintbrushes, pursued this daydream of exquisite, slender and gentle young women he clad with the most beautiful outfits. About his most personal style, one could say that it has been influenced or inspired by the masterpieces of the Italian Renaissance: the silhouettes, the elongated faces with almond green eyes, the fairy-fingered hands, the neat, tidy hairstyles, the small, thin feet recall the women of these ancient times, as they have come down to us through the paintings of Bellini, Bronzino or Caravaggio, their gestures are measured, their poses sensual and somewhat shy, self-effacing and full of wisdom. From the Italian Renaissance, he may also have retained the harmony of rich, silky colours often enhanced with a washing of gold, the modeling, the art of draping, and a certain way of associating this omnipresent femininity with the flowers and the well-ripened fruit. One can almost still remember the taste of the fragrance. Phillipe Auge does not place these women in rich, luxurious caskets. Much to the contrary, he plays with the contrast between an abstract, bare, timeless setting which is remarkable essentially for the harmony and calm it creates around the characters, and which brings out all the more sharply the beauty and elegance of his models. This emptiness, this free space around the women represented also remind us, in a certain way, of Chinese, Japanese or Korean painting. His eventful life between France and Italy, between the high society whom he portrayed in Rome and the theatre for which he created sets and costumes, between the haute couture workshops bustling like beehives and the silence of his own workshop where he found refuge away from any intrusion of the world, to paint in solitude and contemplation. He has shown with Jean Calogero, Lazzaro Donati, Michel Henry, Niek Van der Plas, Jean-Pierre Dubord, Charles Cobelle, Paul Augustin Aizpiri, Yolande Ardissone, Gen Paul, Arbit Blatas, Elisee Maclet, Wayne Beam Morrell, Marie Laurencin, Charles Levier, Minas Avetisian, Constantine Kluge, Leonardo Nierman, Andras Rac, Le Pho, Alexander Dzigurski, Pal Fried, Edward Barnard, Martiros Sergeevich Sarian, Marguerite Stuber Pearson and Eugene Galien-Laloue. Born in Paris in 1935, after studying in Rennes and Paris, he met Schiaparelli and Jacques Fath and created for these two chefs leader in Haute Couture fabrics whose design and fine nuance will be the success of their collections. In Rome, he collaborated with Giulio Coltellaci, produced wonderful sets and costumes for theater and cinema, became a portrait painter of high Roman society. Having become a painter again, his life is between intense periods of work during which he creates disproportionately enlarged still lifes in which Arcimboldo disputes him with Caravaggio, carrying an exuberant sensuality in gestation. See less