Evoque le peintre B. Buffet (1928-1999) au travail, à travers des photographies, prises des années 40 aux années 90, par deux de ses proches, L. Fournol et B. Auger. Retrace sa vie et sa carrière et présente ses sources d'inspiration dans la peinture ancienne et moderne. Avec une chronologie. ©Electre 2024

The famous and acclaimed yet controversial Bernard Buffet (1928-1999) forged his own oeuvre with dramatic determination. Even when using the greasepaint of a clown he forcefully etched both life and death into his art, as witnessed by the photographs published here.

This book was sparked by a three-way encounter in 1958 between an artist, a woman, and a photographer: Luc Fournol, then doing a photo spread on the seaside resort of Saint-Tropez, introduced Bernard to Annabel. Now, forty-five years later, Annabel-who became Bernard's wife and life-long companion-comments on pictures taken over the years by Luc, who remained their loyal friend. Because the secret life of an artist truly resides in his work, the mysteries of the studio can be harder to penetrate than the mysteries of the boudoir. Only a close friend could be privy to the struggle of an artist always plagued by anxiety, a struggle that yielded the first portrait of Annabel, the Passion of Christ, figures of the damned from Dante's "Inferno", and his ever-risky self-portraits.

Here the photos by Fournol and Benjamin Auger not only reflect a life divided between warm intimacy and creative tension, they also portray the sincerity with which Buffet put his name on the line with every painting. For although Buffet may have made mistakes, he never cheated. When he put an end to his own life on October 4, 1999, he knew he was leaving the ring victoriously, for he never sacrificed his freedom or the values that made everything worthwhile.

As a childhood friend and close witness to the events that marked Buffet's life, Fournol is better placed than any other photographer to produce this portrait of an artist confronting his oeuvre.