Exhibition “Transfiguration” of Augustin Francois Guille dit Archiguille (France-Switzerland)

     Sixty paintings by the noted artist, Honorary Member of the Russian Academy of Arts Augustin Francois Guille dit Archiguille will be presented to the public by the Embassy of Switzerland, Russian-Swiss Commerce Chamber and the Russian Academy of Arts in Tsereteli Art Gallery (19 Prechistenka str., Moscow)  on November 8, 2007.
     Archiguille (France-Switzerland) belongs to the celebrated creators of the 1950s who in that troubled time showed their bright expressive works characterized by new composition and plastic innovations. The use of “transfigurations” made it possible to Archiguille to find his place in fine arts.  According Archiguille, the “transfiguration” is not an imitation of nature, it is an expression of the artist depicting his unreserved admiration of the miracle of life. 
     At first a follower of figurative painting, as a result of his later creative searches Archiguille applied to new intellectual and spiritual sources permitting to express a thought through a symbol, to transform the nature preserving its harmony. In his canvases the earth is synthesized with gold and silver thus revealing forms and figures as a part of the “transfiguration”.
     Archiguille was born in 1932.  He spent his childhood during war years in the South of France. In 1955 the artist met George Braque who advised him to develop his painting skills and master a more wide range of techniques. His first canvases were much influenced by his friend Maurice Utrillo. Among his favorite painters was Hans Hartung, his teacher till 1968. Archiguille also admired the sensitivity with which Peter Paul Rubens and Jan Vermeer rendered effects of light. In Archiguille’s works  like in  canvases by Hans Golbein  and Japanese scrolls of the 18th century one can always find principle forms of nature – egg, cylinder, fan, shell, fern.
     Since 1980 the artist has been living in Switzerland. His paintings are very popular with private collectors and connoisseurs of art worldwide.  They can be seen in museums of modern art in New York, Chicago, Houston, Brussels, Madrid, Paris, Tokyo as well as in art numerous galleries.





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