On the occasion of the "Art + Design of a European collection" sale, PIASA auction house will offer on Wednesday, September 23, 2020 a selection of emblematic artists of the second half of the 20th century, including the French artist Bernard Rancillac.
After spending the first years of his life in Algeria until 1937, Bernard Rancillac entered a religious college in Haute-Loire where he spent the period of the Second World War. While doing his military service in the Moroccan riflemen in Meknes, a bookshop exhibits his first drawings.
When he returns to France, Bernard Rancillac settles in Bourg-la-Reine and, in parallel to his job as a teacher, creates his workshop. He met Doctor Audouin, a collector of contemporary art, thanks to whom he could devote himself exclusively to art. At the beginning of the 1960s, the artist studied engraving with the London painter Stanley William Hayter, an artist attached to the New School of Paris.
From the 1960s onwards, Bernard Rancillac was associated with the artists of Narrative Figuration, with whom he participated in the now historic exhibition, "Mythologies quotidiennes" (1964), at the Musée d'Art moderne de la Ville de Paris. At this time, his style evolves towards a free way, with the presence of a more explicit figuration inspired by the world of comics and which will be compared to Pop Art. The humorous and irreverent spirit of Rancillac's canvases, as shown in the "Walt Disney" exhibition held in 1965 at Mathias Fels' home, led him to get closer to the American painter Peter Saul.
Tyree Glenn, one of two pieces by Bernard Rancillac offered for sale on Wednesday, September 23, 2020 is an acrylic on paper. Estimated between 8,000 and 12,000 euros, it represents the American trombonist and vibraphonist who was a great success from the early 1950s.
Bernard Rancillac (born 1931)
Satchmo, 2004
Estimation : 600 / 900 euros
The other work, an acrylic on a silkscreen background on canvas titled "Satchmo", the nickname of Louis Armstrong, testifies to the artist's interest in the world of American Jazz. Its estimate was established between 600 and 900 euros. In May 1968, he produced silkscreen posters at the Atelier Populaire des Beaux-Arts.
Thus, he contributed to the Wall Posters and Slogans of May 68. In 1982, Rancillac undertakes the "exploded images" in his new studio in Arcueil. Between 1982 and 1987, he creates theater sets for Michel Puig's productions at the Théâtre des Ulis, where he plays different roles on several occasions.
