Max Papart (1911-1994) - L'oiseau de feu

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I offer an authentic engraving in perfect condition from a limited edition of 23/35 with a handwritten signature.

Max PAPART (1911-1994), associated with his friends Henri GOETZ and James COIGNARD, is known for his mastery of the carborundum engraving technique. Unlike traditional engraving where the metal is etched, the engraver adds to his metal plate a paste made of resin and carborundum powder (rigid silicon crystal). The result is a distinctive granular textured surface that can be glimpsed in the gray areas and beneath the red of this work. This novelty complements the old intaglio techniques of aquatint and etching. The acid treatment is applied to the plate to sharpen the black lines of the checkerboard and the background nuances. When passed through the press, the thick layer of carborundum creates a relief that pushes and distorts the thick Arches paper, a technique called embossing. This relief, visible to the naked eye, gives the bird and the red band their depth, making the print appear as a sculpture in paper.

At first glance, the work exudes sovereign calm, almost meditative. We are carried into a mental landscape, an abstract space where time seems to have stood still. The background splits into two large fields of soft gray, slightly tinged with greenish gray. This misty frame evokes a heavy sky or a land dozing at dawn. At the center of this hushed neutrality, a burst of color erupts—a fiery, union-shaped line. A wide horizontal band of vibrant vermilion red traverses the composition. It is not straight but trembles as if traced by the hand of nature itself. This fire ribbon acts like a poetic horizon: it separates the top from the bottom like the sky and the earth while injecting a pulse of life and warmth at the heart of the gray silence. The central figure is a checkerboard bird. Under this horizon of fire, this central element revolves in an aerial and living form. This bird is recognizable in Max PAPPART’s graphic art. Stylized, geometric, almost cubist, the bird seems suspended in the wind. Its silhouette is at once stable and dynamic, perched like a kite on the vast grayness. Its body is clothed in a black-and-white checker pattern. The irregular squares recall memory’s puzzles. Black squares disperse there randomly like musical notes on a silent score. The bird becomes the symbol of human thought seeking to take flight in the world’s fuzzy vastness.

Frame dimensions: 46 cm x 38.5 cm
Cuvette dimensions: 21 cm x 27 cm

This artwork in perfect condition bears the handwritten signature of Max PAPART. It dates from the late 1970s to 1985, when the artist was at the peak of his graphic art. A white alabaster-colored frame with a rough texture has been added, along with a new double mat.

This engraving is a work of perfect balance where rigid geometry dances with the freedom of the stroke, and the melancholy of gray is saved by the warmth of a line of fire under the audacity of a bird’s flight."