André Marfaing

André Marfaing was a French painter and engraver born in Toulouse in 1925 and died in 1987. To reassure his parents, Marfaing went to law school in his native town and obtained his bachelor's degree, but at the age of 24, he left for Paris to devote himself entirely to painting. He soon switched to abstraction and, through contact with Pierre Soulages, began to use black almost exclusively in his work.

His artistic practice explores opposites: light and shadow, emptiness and fullness, being and nothingness. "Along with Soulages, Hartung and Kline, Marfaing is one of the great crushers of black that appeared after the last war, but he caresses this color with caution, tenderness and firmness," writes journalist Frédéric Edelmann. Towards the end of his career, the relationship between black and white was reversed, and the artist gave more and more space to light.

André Marfaing has received numerous awards for his work, and represented France at the Venice Biennale alongside Poliakoff, Messagier, Guitet and Manessier. He has exhibited in galleries throughout France, as well as in London and Luxembourg. His work has also been shown in public institutions, at the Abattoirs de Toulouse (2011), the BNF (2002), and the Musée d'Art Moderne de Troyes (2001).