Sam
Szafran
Sam Szafran (1934-2019) whose real name is Samuel Berger, is one of the greatest pastellists of the 20th century.
He lived a particularly difficult childhood, marked by the disasters of the Second World War in a family of Jewish-Polish origin. From 1951, he frequented the districts of Saint Germain des Prés and Montparnasse where he met many artists such as Nicolas de Staël, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Jean Tinguely or even Yves Klein. In 1960, a box of pastel was offered to him, this technique became his preferred medium.
He created his work thematically and in cycles, cabbages, workshops, greenhouses, printing houses, then the stairs that appeared in 1974. He reveals his own perception of architecture by distorting and deconstructing perspective. Sam Szafran moves into Malakoff's studio where Starting in 1977, he created his first large watercolors on silk, using the themes and subjects that characterize his work. There he meets the photographer Antoine Poupel. The two artists are neighbours and friends. After the artist's death, Antoine Poupel created a series of works, like a tribute, entitled “Meet Sam Szafran”.
Numerous retrospectives of the artist are organized in France, particularly in 2001 at the Museum of Romantic Life in Paris and following at the Musée de l'Orangerie in 2022.
