Bernard Buffet

Bernard Buffet (Paris, 1928 – Tourtour, 1999)

Bernard Buffet is one of the greatest expressionist artists of his time, excelling in the distortion of reality to create emotional reactions. Bernard Buffet made an early debut in the world of art. He began to work on printmaking techniques as early as 1943. Bernard Buffet presented his first work at the Under 30 Salon in 1946 when he was only 18 years old. Bernard Buffet painted, drew and engraved landscapes, still lifes, characters, nudes, and various personages in a very particular pictorial style that evokes anger, distress and violence, and leaves no one indifferent. Among his recurring topics, his wife Annabel and the clown. Bernard Buffet, suffering from Parkinson’s disease, committed suicide by asphyxiation in his atelier. Morbid detail: the artist wrote his name – in the calligraphy that made his success – on the black plastic bag he used to choke.