Michel POTAGE (1949-2020) - Lot 24

Michel POTAGE (1949-2020) Untitled, 1985 Pencil and acrylic on paper Signed lower right, dated 44.5 x 59 cm (as is) Michel Potage (1949-2020) is a French painter born in Sens, Yonne. After several experiences in the theater as a director and in music, he began to paint "in spite of himself", as painting is a solitary activity that suits him better. For Michel Potage, painting is "confronting the impossible". In 1978, he decided to travel to Australia to "paint the dream" of the Aborigines. Following this first initiatory journey, Michel Potage painted several series of pictures on themes ranging from the letters Vincent Van Gogh and his brother wrote to each other, to still lifes. Most of his series concern peoples, starting with the Australian Aborigines (1979), then the Gypsies (1988) and finally the Inuit (1989) of the Canadian Far North. He considers himself influenced by the American painter Francis Bacon. In 2015, Olivier Cena, a journalist covering contemporary art, wrote a glowing portrait of the Sénonais artist for Télérama. He defined his work as "the precise, poetic stroke of an unpredictable painter". He goes on to write of the artist: "A (long) time alcoholic, crazy, offbeat, unpredictable, sometimes delirious, Michel Potage lives in a poetic space that is chaotic but of a rare breadth." "The accuracy of his work endows it with a singular symbolic force, arousing an emotion that is sometimes overwhelming," says the journalist. Even today, this artist's work is underestimated for its poetic expressiveness. Michel Potage's career: https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Potage#cite_note-8