Mathieu Rosianu (1897-1969), Human Condition, Circa 1937

Mathieu Rosianu (1897-1969)
Human Condition, circa 1937
Indian ink on paper
Studio stamp on the back
Dimensions of the sheet: 17 x 23.5 cm
Sold framed: frame 30 x 40 cm

Born in Bucharest in 1897 d' an officer father of the Romanian national guard and a mother of French origin, Mathieu Rosianu grew up in a bourgeois environment. He obtained a first drawing diploma in 1912. He left Romania in 1918 to settle in Paris where he continued his artistic training in Decorative Arts before being admitted to the School of Fine Arts in 1920 in the studio by Ernest Laurent (1859-1929). In 1923, he exhibited his first paintings at the Salon d'Automne, the Salon des Tuileries and the Salon de la Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts.

At the dawn of the 1930s, Mathieu Rosianu worked as a draftsman at Bitschenauer and Schweitzer before founding his own design house for fabrics. He produces many models for important French and American textile companies. Politically engaged, he frequented artists close to the libertarian communist movement such as Jean Hélion with whom he became friends. In 1931, he took part in the meetings of the Union of Professional Artists of the Artistic Group, which brought together artists supporting the magazine Monde, a weekly magazine founded by Henri Barbusse. As early as 1932, Mathieu Rosianu was one of the founding members of the Association of Writers and Revolutionary Artists (AEAR) created that same year and bringing together committed artists such as Jean Lurçat, Jean Hélion, Auguste Herbin and Édouard Pignon. He contributes to the AEAR magazine, Commune, for which he produces several graphic compositions with his wife Juliette Bajou. Very involved, he was part of the initiative committee of the collective and as such actively participated in the organization of the first Exhibition of Revolutionary Artists which took place in 1934 and in which a dozen artists took part, including Francis Jourdain, Amédée Ozenfant and Auguste Herbin. Mathieu Rosianu notably writes the preface to the catalog of this one, like a manifesto. The same year, his works rub shoulders with those of renowned surrealist artists such as Salvador Dali and Man Ray on the occasion of the exhibition entitled Warning at Marie Cuttoli, Galerie Vignon in Paris, and whose subject is in response to the attitude of the Nazis towards so-called “degenerate” art.

In 1935, Mathieu Rosianu distanced himself from the AEAR and devoted himself to the realization of decorative silk and wallpaper projects under the pseudonym of Émile Arbor. His creations met with great success at the Universal Exhibition of 1937 where he was rewarded with a Grand Prix before the Second World War put an end to this activity. Faithful to figuration, Mathieu Rosianu is keen to reconnect with the reality dear to artists of the interwar period. He strives to exalt the dignity of the working classes and his work is largely part of the movement of artists raising the social role of art. In opposition to so-called “easel” painting, he is in favor of “painting for everyone”*, “painting charged with human emotions”* and not “pretext painting”*.

The trauma of the terrible disaster of the two wars and the suffering that seized him inspired the artist to create a darker work. His psychic suffering is expressed in his painting which will remain for him a vital necessity. He develops a certain obsession with themes relating to the obsession with death, the anguish of deconstruction and the mourning of the child. The anguish and criticism of the war is also reflected in the ink drawing we present.

© A. BIOT