The Red Armchair, Queen of Spades 1948 Large Colourful Strong Avant Garde New Figuration Oil on Canvas

Here is a painting that is perfectly in tune with its time, the immediate post war period. I've come to find the 1940s one of the most fascinating periods in art history: the art is so very much ALIVE, so strong, so powerful, almost savage, as if to defy the horrors of war.

It was a time when abstraction became mainstream, and the particular interest of Marcel Pouget is that he remained figurative, while creating something radically new and relevant to a changed society.

Pouget's art is not shy and retiring: just like the formidable lady in a red armchair he depicts here, who clearly is claiming her place. He names her "l'Orane" - meaning she comes from Oran in Algeria - and she reminds me of a Queen of Spades... or of a queen full stop.

Marcel Pouger was born and raised in colonial Algeria and studied art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Oran. He managed to continue his studies in Paris in 1946, aged 23, thanks to sponsorship from collectors convinced by his talent.

He only made brief appearances at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris however, preferring to spend time with the avant-garde artists of his time. He was close, notably, to those with ties to the international artistic movement such as Alechinsky, Appel and Lindström.

Back home in Oran in 1947, it is said that Pouget disconcerted his provincial patrons with his modern, audacious style. Although Marcel Pouget is attached to the expressionist movement of the new figuration, he quickly finds his own style. Colour is at the heart of his expressionist language. His figures are surrounded by a powerful line.

The work presented here is part of the works painted in Algeria before Pouget's returned to Paris for his first exhibition in the metropolitan France. The painting is a child of its time: painted on salvage reclaimed materials, the canvas, crinkled around the edges, heaves under the weight of thick impasto.

Marcel Pouget had solos shows and participated in group exhibitions in France and all over Europe.

He appears at the Salon des Indépendants, the Salon de Mai, the Salon d'Autumne and at the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles. A full list of his exhibitions is available.

Solitary and tormented, Marcel Pouget died of Legionnaire’s disease in December 1985.

In France, works by the artist are presently in the collection of the National Museum of Fine Arts/George Pompidou Center, the Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris and in the Museum of Grenoble. Internationally, his work can be found in the Museum of Fine Arts of Algiers, the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig in Vienna, the Veraneman Foundation in Belgium, the Museum of Tel Aviv, and others.

Our oil on canvas measures 81 x 54 cm. It is signed and dated 1948 at the centre left. To the verso, there is a charcoal study and a title "Le Fauteuil Rouge". The overall size in a simple box frame is 83 x 57 cm.

Nous parlons français, und wir sprechen auch Deutsch! Paintings may be viewed in Norwich and in Paris, as well as in London and Cambridge by appointment. Please contact us if you would like further details and images of an artwork.