Georges Arditi (1914-2012). From One Reality to the Other
Exhibition from 7 October 2023 to 7 January 2024
With exceptional support from the artist’s family, La Piscine and the Musée Estrine in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence are joining forces to devote an exhibition to Georges Arditi (1914-2012). Painter of Greek-Spanish origin, born in Marseille into a Jewish family, trained at the National School of Decorative Arts in the Legueult workshop, regularly exhibited at the Salon d’Automne from 1945, Arditi is a loquacious artist and representative of this Parisian school which alternated between figurative and abstract art in the 1950s. Apart from a retrospective exhibition at the museum of La Poste in 1990, he is still not very well known.
At La Piscine, where Georges Arditi’s exhibits include a still life, a small gouache painting and a virtuoso portrait of the painter’s first two children donated in 2023 by Catherine Arditi, the exhibition focuses on the first two creative periods of the artist and his journey within the world of figuration and realism: self-portraits, group portraits and still lifes of the 1940s, strongly influenced by the Quattrocento style and the exhibition of the French “realist painters” of the 17th century organised in 1934 at the Musée de l’Orangerie in Paris, as well as the workshops, urban views and industrial landscapes from 1952 to 1958, more marked by the decomposition-recomposition experiments of certain forms of Cubism. A unique set of sketches for theatre sets will also be on display, evoking the contributions of Arditi’s work as a tapestry designer, bibliophile illustrator and theatre decorator in the field of decorative arts.
In Saint-Rémy, the emphasis will be on the spectacular landscapes inspired by the lighting and colour effects around Mont Ventoux, with a focus on abstract production from 1958 to 1973.
Commission
Bruno Gaudichon, head curator, La Piscine – André-Diligent Museum of Art and Industry in Roubaix
Élisa Farran, curator and director, Estrine museum, Saint-Rémy-de-Provence
Catalogue published to coincide with the exhibition (Silvana Editoriale)
The design was made possible thanks to generous support from the paints distributed by Tollens.
Key: Georges Arditi (1914-2012), Pierre and Catherine Arditi, children, 1950. Oil on canvas. 130 x 89 cm. Roubaix, La Piscine – André Diligent Art and Industry Museum (donation by Catherine Arditi in 2023). Photo: Alain Leprince © ADAGP, Paris, 2023
