Marcel POUGET (1923 – 1985)

In this painting, Marcel Pouget demonstrates his mastery of small format. The artist twirls the colors. Crisp, sharp and swirling, they push the boundaries of the frame and give depth and character to its subject, the dog. The animal evokes both millennia-old representations of cave painting and those, later, of the fantastic bestiary. Not devoid of humour, Marcel Pouget borrows from mystical aesthetics to restore a very real triviality: the conscience of the dog. With a hollow belly, he observes the spectators as if he were ready to be approached to pet him and feed him. Painter, poet, choreographer and filmmaker, after having studied and started painting at the Beaux Arts in Algiers, Marcel Pouget went to Paris in 1946, aged 23, thanks to the generosity of a group of amateurs. He made only brief appearances at the École des Beaux-arts in Paris, preferring to frequent the avant-garde artists of his day – those with ties to the international art movement, including Alechinsky, Appel and Lindström. His paintings are described as “Abstract Expressionist”, a term rejected by Pouget who prefers that of “New figuration”. Back in Oran in 1947, Pouget disconcerted his patrons with his style. He returns to Paris on the occasion of his first metropolitan exhibition. The painter participates in a number of individual and collective exhibitions in Parisian galleries as well as in Europe. It appears at the Salons des Indépendants, Autumn, May and at the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles. Although Marcel Pouget is attached to the expressionist current of the new figuration, he quickly finds his own writing. Color is at the heart of his expressionist language. His characters are surrounded by a powerful line. A solitary and tormented character, Marcel Pouget died of legionnaire’s disease on December 5, 1985. Bibliography:Museums : – Musée des Beaux-Arts d’Alger, Centre George Pompidou – Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.