1972, Original Exhibition Catalogue, SAM SZAFRAN, Pastels 70-72, Galerie Claude Bernard

Original Exhibition Catalogue

Published by Galerie Claude Bernard in Paris in 1972

32 Pages

Original Soft Binding

29cm x 21cm

First Edition

Sam Szafran was a French Artist. He was born in Paris in 1934, a son of Polish Jewish immigrants.  Szafran grew up in the Quartier des Halles. As a child, he knew that art was what he wanted to do. During World War II he was hidden in the countryside and later in Switzerland, but returned to Paris in 1944 to live with his mother. He was captured there by the Nazis and sent to a camp in Drancy. He was freed by the Americans and then left Europe, spending four years in Australia. He returned to Paris in 1951. Following abstract beginnings at the Atelier de la Grande Chaumière, where the young artist studied under Henri Goetz, he discovered pastel in the early 1960s. During the postwar period he encountered as well Jean Arp, Yves Klein, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Joan Mitchell, Alberto Giacometti, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Martine Franck. In 1963 he married the Swiss-born Lilette Keller, and their son Sébastien was born the following year. After spending several years in studios provided by their friends, they finally moved to Malakoff in 1974.