March 2017 Fine Arts
57-50-B by Martin Barré
Highlighted by the Centre Pompidou which will devote to his work a retrospective starting November 2018, Martin Barré (Nantes, 1924 – Paris, 1993) is one of the most remarkable French artists of abstract art from the post-war period. He never ceased in his examination of a painting and its limitations by progressively developing a very personal style which aimed, according to his own terms, for "reduction-concentration". His art tends to reach the fundamental elements of painting through reduction of the object, material, colour, form and gesture. This earned him a posteriori to be designated as one of the precursors of Minimal Art in France.
See the artwork in the collectionMARTIN BARRÉ (Nantes, 1924 – Paris, 1993)
57-50-B
1957
Oil on canvas
89 x 116 cm
Signed "MARTIN BARRÉ" with grey oil on the bottom left; titled "57-50-B" and countersigned "MARTIN BARRÉ" with black oil on the reverse of the canvas
FGA-BA-BARRE-0001
Provenance
Galerie Arnaud, Paris
Helena Rubinstein Foundation Collection, New York
Sotheby’s Arcade, New York, November 7, 1997, lot no 410 (mentioned and reproduced under the title Abstract Composition)
Franck Prazan Collection, Paris (until 2009)