Symbols, Calligraphy, Semiotic Study, by Bernard Quentin, French Antique Abstract Oil on Canvas, 1959

Bernard Quentin is a fascinating artist whose work is concerned with finding "a universal language" in the form of symbols and colours.

I am using the present tense, as the artist is still alive today- at the ripe old age of 95.

The work presented here is an oil on canvas from 1959; and feels like the artist's universe in concentrated form. It has the lightness and effortlessness of Asian calligraphy combined with magnetic, subtle colouring (for Bernard Quentin, each colour bears meaning and signification). The result is simply magical.

Born in 1923 in the North of France,Bernard Quentin arrived in Paris around 1940 to study painting, sculpture and architecture at the Ecole Nationale des Arts Décoratifs and the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts.

Active in the Resistance between 1942 and 1944, Bernard Quentin came to frequent the Maison de la Pensée Française in 1945, where he befriended Pablo Picasso.

He settled in Saint-Germain-des-Prés in 1946, where he moves in existentialist and surrealist circles along with painters Wols and Camille Bryen, writers Jean Paul Sartre and Boris Vian, and singer Juliette Greco - nicknamed "the existentialist's muse - who was Quentin's lover at the time/

His first exhibition is in 1945 at the Maison de l’université in Paris. In Switzerland, Bernard Quentin discovers the works of Paul Klee. Fascinated by its poetic primitivism, it leads Quentin to permanently focus his work on letters and symbols by creating ideograms.

Bernard Quentin states his interest in cuneiform writing, rock inscriptions, Egyptian hieroglyphs and Scandinavian runes, the study of which will take him to spend the entire winter of 1948 in Lapland.

In 1947-1950, he exhibits the semiotic works that are the outcome of his research at the famed Galerie Maeght as part of the the group "Les Mains éblouies", which counts Joan Miró, Alberto Giacometti, Jean Signovert, Alexander Calder and Antoni Tapies as members.

In the 1960s, Bernard Quentin expands its investigations from painting to sculpture by running totem statues.

Simultaneously continuing to work on symbols, Bernard Quentin moved to Milan in 1962 for a period of two years, as part of an agreement with the Research Centre Olivetti, moving his work towards new technologies and computer science. Salvador Dalí then calls him a "pioneer of cybernetic art and electronic writing."

In 1977, Bernard Quentin creates with Jesus Rafael Soto, Jean Messagier, Jean-Pierre Raynaud, Pierre Restany and Serge Rezvani, the collective Art + with the aim to to extend art in monumental integrations to environment.

Bernard Quentin has never ceased to explore the range of possibilities included in every word, every sign, every spelling. Graffiti, shorthand, hieroglyphics, pictograms, kufic and Zen calligraphy, fiber optic and electronic letters form his "semiotic art".

Our oil on canvas measures 46 x 55 cm, plus its narrow original artist's frame.

In good condition, with light stable craquelure and two tiny consolidations as visible on the photos, the painting is signed at the lower right, and bears indications on the verso of the canvas.

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.