Contemporary art - Modern art

Contemporary art - Modern art

mercredi 11 décembre 2019 15:00
Salle 9 - Drouot-Richelieu, 9, rue Drouot 75009 Paris
See the catalog
Download the PDF
Auction room
Printable results
My orders
Sale information

Colette Creuzevault collection

great animators, Colette Creuzevault and her father Henri Creuzevault (1905-1971), whose galleries first 159 Faubourg Saint-Honoré, then from May 1957, 9 avenue Matignon and finally in the 1980s, 58 rue Mazarine, will have been major references in the art market.

Henri Creuzevault, strong of his reputation as an immense bookbinder of the Art Deco period, friends of writers and artists opens his first gallery in the effervescence of the post-war period. He then celebrated in prestigious exhibitions the quintessence of contemporary painting, from Picasso to Braque, Juan Miro, Giacometti, Poliakoff or Staël, while giving a prominent place to sculptors such as Degas or Arp. Qualifying his time as the "century of sculpture" 1st, Henri Creuzevault will engage with verve and passion in the defense of this medium, which is still very little shown.

will be decisive in his choice and he does not hesitate to sign an exclusive contract with the artist whom he will exhibit masterfully in the spring of 1959. Despite the premature disappearance of the one already known as L'Ouragane in July of the same year, Henri Creuzevault never stopped promoting Germaine Richier's work, both through exhibitions at the gallery (L'Atelier de Germaine Richier in 1960, La Grande Spirale in 1961, Triptychs and diptychs in 1963, Paintings, object sculptures in 1964...) as well as through loans to institutions during various retrospectives, organized in France and abroad. The gallery's publication in 1966 of the sumptuous monograph dedicated to the sculptor shows a deep attachment to one of the most powerful and original works of the 20th century.

Henri Creuzevault's other great encounter remains César,that he will show, as a pioneer, from 1957, the É>acquiring state during this first exhibition La Tortue, sublime fer soudé. From then on, a close and fruitful collaboration between the two men continued, culminating in the exhibition, under the title César sculpteur, of irons and bronzes, Henri Creuzevault being considered one of the main instigators of the artist's work at the foundry.

After the death of her father in 1971, Colette, fascinated by this artistic and creative universe since her earliest childhood, took over and brilliantly continued the gallery's adventure. A great friend of Caesar, in the spring of 1973 she organized the mythical exhibition Tête à têtes, devoted to the artist's self-portraits. This considerable event remained in the collective memory for its extraordinary opening, where guests could taste self-portraits of Caesar made in bread by his friend the baker Poîlane. Colette Creuzevault's loyalty to Caesar is exemplary, as evidenced by a last tribute exhibition in 2005, Masques 1968-1973.

Member, just like César, of the Nouveaux réalistes group, Nikki de Saint Phalle,also close friend of Colette Creuzevault will seduce the gallery owner with her feminine universe, furniture with languid and colorful shapes inviting her to a dreamlike journey with fantastic nuances.

Subtle echo to Caesar's Self-Portrait Mask, Theater Mask II, from Jean Dubuffet dated 6 March 1969 and belonging to a series of only 5 variants, illustrates a perfect compromise between sculpture and painting and underlines the passion

Sales conditions