Paul Signac, 1863-1935
by Paul Signac
from Metropolitan Museum of Art
While Georges Seurat is the best-known pointillist, he wasn't the only one. Signac: 1863-1935 reintroduces a tireless advocate of neo-impressionism, a painter whose suburban imagery and leisured lifestyle belied his left-wing political views. Lively essays by scholars and curators portray different facets of Paul Signac's career. Virtually self-taught, he found the catalyst for his mature style in the small-scale brushwork of the slightly older Seurat, but replaced his serene, formal quality with overtly decorative patterning. As a yachtsman, Signac was drawn to marine subjects such as boats gliding on sparkling water at different times of day. After moving from Paris to Saint-Tropez in 1892, he took up watercolor, ideal for painting sunsets. Attempts at translating his political convictions into art (culminating with the monumental figure of a worker wielding a pickax) met with failure. But Signac's brilliance as a colorist is indisputable, infusing each of the 223 plates in this handsome book. --Cathy Curtis
During his fifty-year career, the French Neoimpressionist artist Paul Signac produced powerful works in many media. This beautiful book, which examines various aspects of Signac's career and reproduces in color some two hundred of his paintings, drawings, watercolors, and prints, is an unprecedented overview of his art and influence. The book traces Signac's artistic development, which began with the luminous plein air paintings he made in the early 1880s, continued with his explorations of color harmony, contrasts, and neoimpressionist technique made in close association with Georges Seurat, and culminated with the scintillating works of his maturity, in which the rigors of pointillism gave way to richly patterned, decorative color surfaces. Essays discuss Signac's triumphs as a painter, draftsman, watercolorist, and printmaker, examine his role as a promoter of his own works and those of his colleagues, and shed new light on his appreciation of the works of his predecessors, contemporaries, and followers. The volume also includes an annotated chronology and a map that pinpoints the sites depicted in Signac's works.
Paul Signac: A Collection of Watercolours and Drawings
by Marina Ferretti Bocquillon
from Harry N. Abrams
A leader in the Neo-Impressionist movement, the French painter Paul Signac (1863-1935) is best known for the intense color effects in his oil landscapes and marine canvases. However, it is in his largely unknown graphic works on paper-the precise black-and-white sketches and fluid watercolors that filled his sketchbooks, and that are published here for the first time-that his evolution as an artist emerges. This catalogue raisonn-designed to accompany the first exhibition of 133 of Signac's watercolors and drawings-is the only book in print on this well-loved artist.
Presenting Signac's graphic oeuvre in its entirety, the stunning volume serves as a visual diary, tracing his life, his travels, and his artistic explorations, capturing his passion for boats and water, and providing a new understanding of this important artist. 157 illustrations, 140 in full color, 11 x 93_4"
MARINA FERRETTI BOCQUILLON has organized many international exhibitions on Impressionism and Post-Impressionism. She is the author of several essays and previous catalogues on Signac, as well as many articles on 19th-century art.
CHARLES CACHIN, a physician, contributes insights gleaned both as the artist's son-in-law and from his lifelong interest in Signac's work. TOWNSEND WOLFE is director and chief curator of the Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock.
EXHIBITION SCHEDULE Arkansas Arts Center, Little Rock Feb. 19-Apr. 9, 1999
Dessins Originaux Anciens et Modernes; Estampes Anciennes Du XVe Au XVIIIe Siecle; Estampes Originales De Maitres Des XIXe & XXe Siecles - En Vente Chez Paul Proute, S.A., Paris - Catalogue Signac 1983 / Modern & Old Master Drawings, Prints....
Major works by Bonnard, CeÌzanne, Degas, Raoul Dufy, Manet, Matisse, Modigliani, Monet, Morisot, Picasso, Pissarro, Renoir, Rouault, Segonzac, Signac, ... sale November 19, 1958 [sales catalog]
Paul Signac, 1863-1935: Retrospective exhibition : 11th March-15th April, 1954
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