André LANSKOY (1902-1976) Lot n° 59

Méli-Mélo endiablé, 1964 Oil on canvas, signed lower left, titled and dated on reverse 81 x 65 cm 31 57/64 x 25 19/32 in. André Lanskoy André Lanskoy was born in 1902 into an aristocratic Russian family. When the revolution broke out, he joined the White Army. The artist went into permanent exile in France in the spring of 1921. Upon his arrival in Paris, he took private classes at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière and received the support of the very important Russian community living in the capital at the time, including Michail Larionov and Natalia Goncharova. In 1923, he exhibited with Sonia Delaunay, Ossip Zadkine, Léopold Survage, Chaïm Soutine and Victor Barte at the Galerie de la Licorne. The painter was selected the same year to participate in the Salon d'Automne, where he was spotted by the art dealer Wilhem Udhe. Wilhem Udhe bought a few paintings from him and worked to make the young man's work known to Parisian galleries. In 1937, André Lanskoy and his peers discovered the work of Klee and Kandinsky at the exhibition entitled "Origins and Development of Independent Art". The event was a real artistic shock for Lanskoy, who then began non-figurative research. In the early 1950s, the painter's work acquired an international dimension when Louis Carré exhibited it in his New York gallery. The artist became a key player in the revival of abstraction between 1950 and 1960 and exhibitions followed one another. Méli-Mélo endiablé painted in 1964 is part of the second part of the artist's life where he becomes resolutely abstract. The paintings produced at this time place him among the main representatives of lyrical abstraction − which is characterized by a spontaneous style and gestures − and confirms his place within the second school of Paris where he will become a mentor for some other artists. The artist makes the interaction between forms and colors his main research. Here, on a very dark background, the shapes that stand out give free rein to the imagination.