Albert Deman

ALBERT DEMAN (France, 1929 - 1996).
Untitled.
Oil on canvas.
Signed in the lower right area.
Measurements: 73 x 60 cm; 93 x 80 cm (frame).
Albert Deman was a French painter and sculptor whose career developed between the post-war figurative tradition and a progressive opening towards freer languages closer to abstraction. He initially trained as a sculptor at the Lille School of Fine Arts in 1945 and continued his studies in Nantes in 1946. That same year he began exhibiting at the Salon de La Roche-sur-Yon and at the René Robin gallery, thus initiating an early exhibition activity. From 1971 he settled in La Rochelle, where he consolidated his artistic career and also participated in the Salon des painters witnesses of his time in Paris between 1957 and 1960.
His pictorial production is organized in several well-defined stylistic stages, including the so-called "Chicago period" (1956-1957), the "pear tree period" (1971-1972), the "mobilist" phase (1978), the pastel period (1979-1983), the copper prints (1984) and, finally, the "Maghreb period" (1984-1985). In his beginnings, his work shows the influence of Jean Carzou's mannerist graphics, while in later decades his style becomes more restrained and, in his last years, he evolves towards vibrantly colored watercolors in which the motif is diluted in an atmosphere close to lyrical abstraction.