We are pleased to present a group of paintings and drawings by Georges Folmer, just released by the artist's estate.
These include:
La Grande Érèbe, 1956-1957
One of Folmer's most important works, it is both an arrangement of purely abstract forms, and a contemplation on the theme of Erebus, the personification of darkness born of Chaos in Greek mythology, and on darkness itself. Folmer's forms emerge from darkness into light, from smoky black and charcoal, into the softest pale grey and then ivory and a delicate white. And in an upright shaft of purest red is life itself. From chaos and darkness Folmer has wrought order and light, life and so perhaps hope - an optimistic work.
Equilateral, 1938-1940
A rare early work from the time of Folmer's progression towards pure abstraction. Folmer's understanding of geometry and mathematical theory deepened with his friendship with the 'mathematician-chercheur et dessinateur' Dimitri Viener, who was his neighbour at his studio in rue Dulac, Montparnasse, from 1928 until his disappearance in 1946. In 'Equilateral' Folmer takes broadly organic looking forms and transforms them into pure abstraction, related to the natural world only through geometry and pure mathematics, through polyhedrons and the Golden Ration or 'Section d'Or'.
Composition - Ailes Noires' ('Black Wings')
At the beginning of the 1960s Folmer embarked upon a series of paintings he entitled 'Ailes Noire' (Black Wings). The example we have is remarkable in that, like a handful of Folmer's works at this time, the composition was conceived to work in both a horizontal and a vertical format - though both work equally well, they express quite different moods.
We also have a group of Folmer's early works on paper. He referred to them as 'monotypes' but rather than off-set prints they are simply paintings on paper - albeit ones where the painter, like innumerable post-war artists, has employed alternatives to the traditional artist's brush and palette knife. With most the inks were applied with an array of sponges and hand tools of his own creation, some with highly regimented forms, others using more expressive sweeps and curves of the rollers
For further information on the exhibition, individual artworks or the artist, please contact::
Jonathan Dodd
E: Jonathan@waterhousedodd.com
T: (+44) 020 7734 7800
