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CONTEMPORARY ART

Charchoune, catalogue raisonné 1912-24

Pierre Guénégan,

Catalogues raisonnés are generally not made for the public at large. Sometimes though, they allow us to go beyond the work of one single artist to seize the atmosphere of an era. It is the case of this first volume on the painted work of Serge Charchoune (1888-1975),a Russian painter of Slovak origin, settled in Paris at the beginning of the XXth century. It covers the period of 1914-1924 (four other volumes will follow, up to 1975), he presents of course the paintings of that period and various documents such as the fac-similes of letters to gallery owners where he exhibited. But posters of exhibitions, magazine covers and photographs of his friends of the time (Breton, Soupault, Eluard, Péret) bring the Dada and Surrealist eras back to life (with the trial of Maurice Barrès, accused of a crime against the security of the mind!) or the beginnings of Cubism which he took part in actively. During this decade in upheaval, Charchoune was always in movement. He was in Paris as well as in Barcelona (at the time of boxer-artist Arthur Cravan) then in Berlin: what is offered to us is a cut away diagram of Europe at the turn of the First World War.

• Charchoune, catalogue raisonné 1912-24, trilingual (fFrench, English, Russian) by Pierre Guénégan, 60 €, ISBN : 2-9700494-1-4

Charchoune, catalogue raisonné 1912-24 - Pierre Guénégan,


Review published in the newsletter #34 - from 15 February 2007 to 21 February 2007

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