Lithogravure, Félix Labisse (1905 -1982)

Original lithography by Félix Labisse entitled “Les Femmes damnées” (the damned women), signed in pencil at the bottom left corner and numbered 10/100. It represents a set of 9 naked women with long hair and fits into the dreamlike and provocative universe of the surrealist painter, marked by eroticism and mystery. The title directly echoes Charles Baudelaire’s censored poem from Les Fleurs du mal, dealing with lesbian love and melancholy.

Very nice condition.

Period frame in aluminum and fabric, slightly scratched.

Dimension out of frame (on sight): 43.5 x 31.5 cm

Dimension with frame: 69 x 56.5 cm.

Félix Labisse, born on March 9, 1905 in Marchiennes and died on January 29, 1982 in Neuilly-sur-Seine, was a French surrealist painter whom the surrealists, however, refused to recognize as one of their own. On the fringes of André Breton’s movement, he was linked in 1947-1948, through his friendship with Christian Dotremont, to the adventure of revolutionary surrealism. Since the early 1940s, his work has been recognized and supported by Robert Desnos, Paul Éluard, Philippe Soupault, Jacques Prévert. Patrick Waldberg devoted an important monograph to him in 1970. Alongside his career as a painter, Labisse pursued a career as a set designer for the theater, dance, and opera.

His mature work, placed under the sign of metamorphosis, explores the frontiers of fantasy, dream, magic or eroticism. Her feminine characters with lascivious bodies, smooth shapes and raw colors, evolve in a strange and timeless world.

In 1963-1965 appear the first blue women who will contribute to its fame: Yemanja, The Evening of December 8 (1963) Orixa, The relentless catechumen (1964), Maria d’Apparecida (1965), Turquoise Bath (1968)…