Portrait (Valentine), ca 1940

I have to admit I did not know Eugène Leroy‘s paintings and the very large (169 works) exhibition at Musée d’Art Moderne Paris, is a revelation. This artist from Tourcoing, who lived to be 90, had different themes of predilection and the clever design of the exhibition set in a multitude of intimate white rooms, devotes a special space to each of his passions. The last very large space lit with natural zenithal light is devoted to landscapes and marines and is a true display of fireworks. Suitably enough, the first room concentrates on the two women of his life, Valentine, whom he met when he was a teenager (she died in 1979), and Marina, the companion of the last twenty years. There had not been a exhibition of his work since 1988 and it was at the same MAM museum, then curated by the legendary Suzanne Pagé.

Yellow Marina, 1988, collection Thomas Haul, Spire -Lingenfeld, Germany

MAM Paris owns over 40 works of the artist, due to a generous donation and acquisitions. Fabrice Hergott the director, introduced the show mentioning the very special relationship that Leroy had to painting. “He perceived reality like Cézanne but with no images: it is  the opposite of photography which has invaded the world of today. He is all in the economy of images, and perceived painting as a slow penetration of things, a process rather than an aim”. Light is extremely important in each one of his works and as the curator of the show, Julia Garimorth, pointed out, he used to paint in a studio with natural light coming from the North as usual but also from the South and with mirrors. This meant that light surrounded him.

Marina inside, 1996, (detail) Collection Antonia and Philippe Dolfi

The particularity of his painting is the thickness and the accumulation and superposition of material on most of his canvases. He also uses cardboard and one can see they bend under the weight of the paint. It is important for him to touch the paint and I was very tempted to touch some of them… Claude Bernard was one of the first galleries to exhibit his works in Paris in 1961 and in 1963, and Georg Baselitz and his merchant Michael Werner discovered Leroy’s work then. Pierre Langlois also showed him in Passage Saint André des Arts.

Untitled (crucifixion), 1950

A room is focused on the paintings inspired by great masters, Velasquez, Van der Goes, Rembrandt, Jérome Bosch… Because he was born and trained in the north of France, his first influences were Flemish. But he also devoted much time to “The three Graces”.

Three nudes, 1959, private collection

On top of showing this great master, MAM offers three other exhibitions of Toyen, the Czech surrealist artist, Yves Saint Laurent’s dresses amid the collections and Italian sculptor Anita Molinero. Eugène Leroy until August 28 at MAM.