Oil on canvas
61 x 78 cm
Provenance:
Atelier Joseph Inguimberty
Bibliography:
Giulia Pentcheff, Joseph Inguimberty, Premier catalogue de l'oeuvre peint, 2012, reproduced under number 010 on page 104.
The painterof two shores: from Indochina to Provence
Born inMarseille in 1896, Joseph Inguimberty left his native city for Paris, where hetrained at the École Nationale des Arts Décoratifs. In 1925, he answered VictorTardieu's call and moved to Hanoi to teach at the École des Beaux-Arts, whichhe accompanied for over twenty years in the birth of modern Vietnamese art.Alongside Alix Aymé, he participated in the revival of traditional lacquertechniques, which they adapted by skilfully blending Asian know-how withWestern influences.
The SecondWorld War interrupted this long period in Indochina. Returning to France in1946, Inguimberty settled in Menton, his wife's hometown, and returned toProvençal landscapes, which he painted with an eye profoundly transformed byhis Asian experience. His works blend flat colors, serenity and slender forms,creating a subtle fusion between the rice paddies of Tonkin and the lavenderfields of Provence.
Marseille,his home town, remains a constant source of inspiration. He had already paintedmonumental scenes of dockworkers on the quays in the 1920s, and he continues tosurvey its ports and creeks, faithful to his practice of painting from themotif. Despite a rich career and regular exhibitions in Parisian galleries, heremains little known locally, even though he is now recognized in Vietnam asone of the major artists of his time.
In 2012,the Alexis Pentcheff gallery in Marseille organized a major retrospectiveentitled Le Sud de Joseph Inguimberty, restoring the visibility of his work inFrance. At the same time, the publication of the first catalogue raisonné,directed by Giulia Pentcheff in collaboration with the artist's children,reconciles the different facets of his work and reveals the profound unity of ajourney shared between two cultures, two worlds, two forms of light.
In thisway, Joseph Inguimberty has created a singular body of work, at a crossroadsthat transcends geographical and temporal boundaries. An art that is bothrooted and floating, where painting becomes the meeting place between memoriesof elsewhere and familiar landscapes, between tradition and modernity.
Discover more works by this artist on the gallery's website: https://www.galeriepentcheff.fr/fr/peintre-joseph-inguimberty#Oeuvres