Art Of The Day Weekly

Dufy, chief decorator

Raoul Dufy had two moments of glory: his Fauvist period from 1905-1906 next to Matisse and Derain, and the 1937 International Exhibition in Paris with his monumental, Fée Electricité. Between the two, during a third of a century, the Normand painter (1887-1953) led a rather discreet career in comparison to many of his colleagues as far as easel painting is concerned. To live he worked on applied arts and for over 15 ears – from 1912 to 1928- he produced a countless number of motifs for silk manufacturer Bianchini-Férier. That activity did not exhaust his happy and colourful inventiveness. He also choreographed certain ballet scenes with Cocteau, designed panels for the famous houseboat of couturier Paul Poiret at the Exhibition of 1925, made frescoes for the homes of wealthy sponsors (like the one for doctor Viard, on boulevard Péreire in Paris), or decorations for steamers. Together with pottery artist Artigas, they produced gardens for living rooms, small, very naive ceramic compositions in which one could place plants or cut flowers, or even tapestries. The catalogue of the exhibition at the Palais Lumière in Evian – open until 5 June 2017 - shows this festival of colour in all fields which in the long run weighed on his reputation, giving him an aura of dilettante which Picasso, who was just as bulimic, never had to face.
• Dufy, le bonheur de vivre, directed by Olivier Le Bihan, Snoeck, 2017, 192 p., €35.

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