Bernard Buffet

BERNARD BUFFET (Paris, 1928 – Tourtour, France, 1999).
“Temple Daibutsu-Den,” 1982.
Original eight-color lithograph on Arches paper, print no. 126/250
Signed and numbered in pencil.
Published by Maurice Garnier, Paris.
Bibliography: Charles Sorlier, *Buffet Lithographe*, vol. II, cat. no. 399.
Measurements: 58 x 76 cm (paper).

This lithograph belongs to the Japanese series created by Bernard Buffet during his mature years, one of the most distinctive aspects of his graphic work. The artist applied his characteristic style of angular, repetitive black lines to these images, adapting it to Japan’s monumental architecture and ceremonial spaces.

The composition depicts the Daibutsu-den, the Great Buddha Hall of the Tōdai-ji Temple in Nara. Buffet organizes the scene through a pronounced horizontal structure, with the architecture silhouetted in the background and a succession of stone elements distributed in the foreground. The dense network of black lines, which runs across the ground as well as the vegetation and architectural forms, lends the image an almost dramatic intensity.

Bernard Buffet was one of the key figures of postwar French figurative art. His work, characterized by incisive lines and an austere, melancholic vision, is featured in institutions such as the Centre Pompidou and the Museum of Modern Art in New York. In Japan, where his work was exceptionally well received, the Bernard Buffet Museum in Shizuoka houses one of the most extensive collections dedicated to the artist.