CELSO LAGAR (1891-1966) Circus parade Mixed media... Lot 41

CELSO LAGAR (1891-1966) Circus parade Mixed media on paper mounted on panel Signed lower left Mixed media on paper laid on panel; signed lower left 40 X 48 CM - 15 3/4 X 18 7/8 IN. - PROVENANCE Private collection, France (Gift of the artist). Then by descent to the present owner. - An accomplished artist of the first generation of the École de Paris, Celso Lagar was distinguished in both sculpture and painting. His work, at the confluence of all the avant-garde of the early twentieth century, is characterized by its technicality, its bright colors and its eclectic inspirations. - We find these elements in the work that we present, a circus parade very surprising which is singled out by the affirmation of planism, a relative absence of movement, a time that seems in suspension. Each actor presents himself under the features of the caricatured character he embodies and takes his place in a world that seems to be well structured and yet illusory. For the obvious balance of the composition is called into question by the instability of Pierrot, whose steps one does not know if he is going down or up. Is this the beginning or the end of the show? - With this work, Celso Lagar offers us a singular work that is specific to the questioning of his time. Saluting the talent of the artist, Max Jacob wrote: "Here is a painter in the soul and in the spirit; here is a generous producer that does not hinder the barriers of the different modern schools or others. He paints what he likes, he likes what he paints and he puts into it the ardor of a nourished and sagacious understanding." Max Jacob, exhibition catalog Lagar, Galerie Zborowski, Paris, 1928