Alix AYMÉ (1894-1989) Lot n° 229

Couple Kha, 1930 Oil on canvas 54.4 x 66 cm - 21 3/8 x 26 in This painting will be on loan for the exhibition: Itinéraires de l’ailleurs. Artistes voyageuses. De la «Belle époque » à la seconde guerre mondiale. Palais Lumière, Evian. December 17, 2022 – May 29, 2023. This work will be keeping in France until June 2023.  During his trip to Laos around 1930, commissioned by the French government to decorate the Laos pavilion at the colonial exhibition, Alix Aymé set out to represent the many tribes that populate the territory. Among them, her attention was drawn to the Kha tribe. This tribe, whose etymology means « savage », is divided into different sub-categories where each one shares its own habits and customs. These different peoples are described by Major Georges Aymé as “hard-working, very superstitious, fearful and live in close dependence on the tribes of the Thai branch whose costume they have often adopted”.1 Through the work presented for sale, Alix Aymé brings a unique testimony of this people capturing the immediacy of a moment and the naturalness of these natives. Crouched down, the two characters abandon themselves and enjoy the moment. One is smoking a pipe while the other is pensive. The cloth they wear over their shoulders is auburn with red stripes. The palette is subtly colored. Although the brown tones of the skin, hair and cloth dominate, there are more vivid touches to contrast the composition. Thus the green of the wild vegetation, or the yellow of the sunshine complete the tones. The sensitivity of the artist but also his mastery of painting allow him to immortalize with an almost documentary eye the customs of the Kha tribe, people among the oldest occupants of Laos.