Bernard Buffet

Bernard Buffet was born in Paris, France on July 10, 1928 and attended the Ecole des Beaux Arts in 1944. He was awarded an exhibition at the Galerie des Impressions d’Art in 1947, but attracted little attention until he developed his signature style. In 1948, Buffet won the Prix de la Critique. Following this, he enjoyed the greatest acclaim of the young French painters, eventually known as the most commercially successful French painter alive.

He developed a highly stylized aesthetic immediately recognizable as his own. With sharp, linear forms and neutral palette, he depicted elongated figures and heavily stylized still-lifes, which seemed to express the existential and spiritual solitude of the postwar generation. Later, overwhelmed by commissions and success, his work became more decorative, with less of its initial, earlier impact.  Buffet also executed graphic work and book illustrations.  His career culminated with a museum devoted to his work near Mishima, Japan. His style has become ubiquitous in French history and popular culture.

Buffet once used his mother’s torn sheets as canvases.  He had the most spectacular success, claiming, “Wealth aids my creative spirit; poverty does not necessarily help genius.”