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John Christoforou
(1921 – 2014)
“Flowers in a Vase”
Gouache in heavy impasto
on board. Signed
19 ½” x 13 ¾” (495mm x
350mm)
Overall framed size 27 ¼” x 21 3/8” (690mm x 543mm)
Framed using ultra-violet
filtering low reflect glass IMAGE IMAGE
A
powerfully gestural abstract and figurative artist, he was born in London to
parents of Greek origin. His mother died when he was a baby, his father
in 1932, two years after he and John had moved to Athens.
Before
returning to England in 1938 he studied at L'Ecole
des Beaux-Arts in Athens, where he was influenced by Byzantine art.
During World War Two he served in the Royal Air Force from 1941 to 1946.
He then studied modern art by visiting the
National and Tate Galleries and in 1949 he had his first solo show at 20 Brook
Street Gallery. From 1951 to 1952, during a stay in Paris, he continued to
visit major galleries. He returned to London in 1953 and showed with
Gimpel Fils and at Victor Musgrave's Gallery and made the acquaintance of
writers including Maurice Collis, Colin MacInnes and
Denis Silk. He married in 1956 and decided to settle in Paris. Later, in 1990,
he took French nationality. In 1965 he received the prize of the International
Association of Art Critics in London. He went on to exhibit extensively,
retrospectives including Randers Kunstmuseum, Denmark
in 1974; L'Ecole Regionale
des Beaux-Arts d'Angers, and tour in 1985; and Fondation d'Art Moderne en Picardie, Amiens, 1988. Over the course of 62 years he exhibited his work in over 50 solo exhibitions and
participated in more than 100 group exhibitions throughout the world.
John Christoforou is recognised as an important pioneer of the Nouvelle
Figuration (New Figuration), an international movement that emerged in the
early 1960s from the abstract art movements of the previous decade and included
leading artists such as Francis Bacon and Willem de Kooning. His work is to be
found in many important public collections including the Tate Gallery, Museum des 20 Jahrhundrets,Vienna
Bibliotheca National de Colombia, Bogota Museum of Danish Art, Randers Museum
Jorn, Silkebrog Biblioteque
Municipale, Brest Musee d’Art
Contemporaine de Dunkerque, Dunkirk Centre d’Art Contemporain, Montpellier
Cabinet des Estampes de la Bibliotheque
Nationale, Paris Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Paris Centre Culturel
de Toulouse,Toulouse Musee des Beaux Arts,Toulouse, Contemporary Art Society, London Museum of
Contemporary Art, Elise and Basil Goulandris
Foundation, Athens Frissiras Museum, Athens National
Art Gallery,Athens Museum of Art, Seoul Musee
Olympique, Lausanne Museum of Modern Art,Taiching Vorres Museum,Athens Museum of
Contemporary Art, Cuauhtémoc Musee Galliera, Paris Emfietzoglou Foundation, Athens Centre des Arts Plastiques Albert Chanot, Paris, Nottingham City Museums and
Galleries, Russell Cotes Art Gallery and Museum, Leicestershire County Council
Art Works Collection, the Collection of the Open University, Beaux Art Museum
Nantes, Museum of 20th Century Art, Vienna, Kunst Museum,
Randers, Denmark; Kunst Museum, Silkeborg, Denmark;
