Antoine TZAPOFF (Born 1945) - Lot 280

Antoine TZAPOFF (Born 1945) "The Whale House - Tlingit", 1979 Acrylic on canvas Signed and dated lower right, signed, dated and titled on back of canvas. 35.5 x 65 cm. Antoine Tzapoff, born in Paris in 1945, is not only an ethnographer, but also a painter renowned worldwide for his extraordinary portraits of Amerindians. Russian on his father's side and French on his mother's, Antoine Tzapoff graduated from the École des Arts Appliqués and joined Victor Vasarely's studio in 1964, where he worked for 12 years with the master of Op Art. In 1976, he began his career as a figurative painter of the native peoples of North America. His first exhibition took place in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in 1977, at the initiative of Larry Frank, and in 1978, he had his first show in Paris at the Galerie Robert Duperrier. His work was a great success, and exhibitions followed at Duperrier in 1980 and 1982, then at Galerie Alain Blondel in 1992, and in New York, Mexico, Valencia, Strasbourg, La Rochelle, Barbizon and always Santa Fe. Tzapoff's meeting with Latin American actress María Félix (1914-2002) in the early 1980s was decisive, and he painted a portrait of her every year throughout their intense friendship. Tzapoff attaches paramount importance to the historical and ethnographic veracity of the subjects he portrays. He is interested in the lifestyles, customs and, of course, the history of all the peoples of these "Far Away Cultures". He knows the different materials used by the Amerindians (skin, fabric, beadwork) and the symbolism of each of the motifs depicted. Each detail has its justification and often refers to a very real object, thanks to his ethnographic knowledge forged through the consultation of art books, the assiduous frequentation of museums and galleries, meetings and exchanges with other collectors and his many travels, from St. Lawrence Island in Alaska to southern Mexico. Tzapoff also collaborated with Hermès to create the magnificent Carrés d'Hermès in the colors of the Amerindians and Inuits of the Arctic...