From May 15, 2020
to July 4, 2020

From 15 May to 27 June 2020, Galerie Alexis Pentcheff is pleased to host in its Marseille space an exhibition entirely dedicated to Gaston Suisse, a major figure in animal art, a master lacquer and a founding member of the Art Deco movement. After a show devoted to his friend, Paul Jouve, this new artistic proposal focuses on animal representation in a very original style, carried by the appropriation of the lacquer technique. Mastering this process, Gaston Suisse combines his practice with a great sense of composition, creating lacquers of subtle refinement. In intense formal research, that of a cultivated and curious artist, who never stops exploring mysteries of the material Gaston Suisse obtains the best effects and the most subtle combinations.

For the duration of an exhibition, the gallery’s team is happy to pay tribute to the absolute delicacy of Gaston Suisse’s artistic production, to the way in which he knew how to implement a technique that is by nature laborious, how to tame it gently, like the animals in his compositions, in order to imprint on it the mark of his deep sensitivity.

With nearly ninety works - drawings, pastels, sketches, furniture and artefacts - this exhibition highlights Gaston Suisse’s singularity, an artist that has been critically acclaimed for nearly a century, extremely prized by amateurs and collectors beyond France’s borders, and yet relatively unknown to the general public. The captivating splendour of this bestiary remains a testimony of French Art Deco’s refinement. As a true chemist, Gaston Suisse appropriated traditional craftmanship, pushing back the limits of lacquering techniques while he used usual constraints to create innovative modern processes. If his lacquers have been at the heart of the attention, this exhibition also focuses on sketches, pastels, and preparatory projects, preserved in the artist’s workshop and for most of them, unknown on the art market. This pictorial treasure is an ode to wildlife, and nature studied in its finest details.