Paul Augustin Aïzpiri

Before WW II, a young Paul Augustin Aïzpiri was living and working in the cultural hub of Montparnasse, arguably the epicenter of the art world in Paris at that time. During the war, Aïzpiri escaped a German POW camp in Brittany and eventually returned to Paris. By 1946, a mature style emerges in his work, distinguished by simple lines, figuration and quotidian subject matter. While not financially successful at first, he gained the respect of his contemporaries such as Bernard Buffet, Paul Rebeyrolle, Gaëtan de Rosnay and André Minaux, who like Aïzpiri sought to oppose the elite Parisian salons and the dominance of abstract art. Winning the Prix Corisca in 1948 allowed Aïzpiri to travel to Marseilles, a world vastly different from Paris, which had a profound effect on his art. Throughout the 1950s, a return to figuration saw Aïzpiri’s reputation and critical reception on the rise, and he had many global exhibits, including the Venice Biennale, O’Hana Gallery, London, Wildenstein Gallery, New York, Acosta Gallery, Los Angeles, Laing Gallery, Toronto, to name a few. In the early 1960s he began exhibiting in Japan, where he remains popular, and the Nakata Museum of art museum was established in Onomichi, largely devoted to his his work.