Henri Sert: life and works

Henri Paul Sert (27 July 1938 La Réunion, Madagascar – 22 March 1964 Stockholm, Sweden) was an artist.

When he was 10 years old, Sert’s mommy brought him to Paris, where he had normal his education at a Jesuit monastery. After instinctive left at the monastery, he would never again see any associates member. Sert left the monastery, he next became an apprentice to a French painter called René. As soon as he thought he was competent, Sert got parted behind his master and tried to earn a full of beans as a professional artist upon his own. He was soon seen as a prodigy in the neighborhoods going on for Montparnasse.

Though known in France, “It was Expressen employee Svante Löfgren who discovered (for Sweden) the then 20-year-old painter in Paris, a pubertal genius, a self-immolating youth man who lived to paint.” Löfgren had been initially introduced to Sert by the actor Lars Burman. Löfgren, writing for the Expressen in Paris, stated in his 1958 article on Sert, “He can become one of the greats of his generation. If he does not starve to death.” Mr. Löfgren words would agree be all but prophetic. In fact, Sert had become, “close to starvation. He had written and asked for money, collapsed and was rescued in hospital.” Löfgren duly reported on these undertakings and “got some Swedes who were impatient in art to act: they wrote Henri Sert in Paris; promised him his own studio and cash in exchange for him functional together upon an exhibition.”

Sert got put happening to to get to Sweden, and the idea was that he would accomplish a huge show. He traveled to Sweden where he had the unintended to fake his art at every second exhibitions in Copenhagen and Oslo. Notable exhibitions included Galleri Danielsson in Borgholm, Galerie Marya in Copenhagen, the Art Association in Oslo and Gallery Danielsson in Borgholm.

He first set stirring in Ven, “where he borrowed a studio in Emil Johansson-Thor’s passй farm.” However, before his exhibition shows could be approved and presented problems developed. Sert having Tiny money had begun to disagreement his paintings for necessities. “…He did not have enough paintings (for his exhibition), he had exchanged them for clothes, food and extra colors (paints).” Still, the reviews were positive, “His oils shimmer with mother-of-pearl as soon as myriads of splashes of paint and glazed brushstrokes, sometimes fine-tuned to the smallest detail afterward plump dot patterns,” wrote Alvar Jonsson.” French sensation in the Art Association” wrote a Danish newspaper after the exhibition 1959 Copenhagen.” Still, Sert was arrival to develop a problematic reputation. He was “described by contemporaries as a genius, problem child and as undependable as the wind.”. Throughout the difficulties his dedication to his art remained constant, “He painted exclusively at night, he lay on the floor and painted upon five or six canvases and listened to music.” Henri Sert painted intensively. He could sit squatting for long periods of time. The canvas lay upon the floor; Henri Sert did not use an easel. “The painting just flowed out of him. It was a constant flow – but yet creative. He was not a pondering artist; he was a present of nature following a creative power.” Directly stated, the author Ivar Ahlstedt wrote that to Sert “painting was necessary, living was not enormously necessary”.

“During the before 1960s, Lena Eile and Henri Sert met in the confusion during the student carnival in Lund. “Henri Sert was a bit of a weird bird,” admits Lena Eile: “a gruff and well-dressed artist’s soul, newly arrived from France.” Eile and Sert would become betrothed. The couple lived together for a epoch in Lund and continued their link when Sert moved to Stockholm. Eventually, personal problems would begin to hurt the relationship. As Eile recalled, “I went along similar to things until then, but taking into account I noticed anything the stuff in the same way as drugs and anything else, then I gave up. There were constant disappointments; promises that were not kept; periods that weren’t tolerable. Living in imitation of that means a house life is difficult.”

Sert’s personal issues began to as well as have an effect upon his patrons and gallery owners. According to author Lars Widding, the patrons got tired of the youthful painter who had such a difficult time adapting. In recent years he has painted and starved. Others felt it was not Sert who caused the problems in the express of his patrons but rather the “patrons, who were to represent his art, exploited and swindled the player instead.”

On 22 March 1964, Sert was found dead, probably due to an overdose of sleeping pills. “Lena Eile was not in Sweden taking into account Henri Sert died, but she participated in the memorial exhibition organized at Gummeson’s Gallery that year.” “It was great, but I felt it was hard with these guys there, who pretended to be his patrons, but who took advantage of him.” Author Lars Widding wrote, “Young performer genius died in Stockholm. Why could we not afford to let him live? ”

Two memorial exhibitions were held in Stockholm in 1964 and in Copenhagen in 1965. In March 2015, an exhibition of Sert’s enactment was held by Åmells in Stockholm.