Maurice Miot Known As "melito" (1920-1994), Open Window, 1950, Pencil On Paper

Maurice MIOT known as “Melito” (1920-1994)
Open window, 1950
Pencil on paper
Signed “Melito” and dated “50” lower right
35 x 25 cm
Frame 50 x 40 cm
Sold in its original frame with a few marks usage

Son of an artistic locksmith from Aube, Maurice Miot (who painted under the pseudonym Melito) took courses in higher mathematics and industrial design in Reims from 1934 to 1937 before settling in Neuilly -sur-Seine following the Second World War. Initially a figurative painter, he discovered surrealism in Paris and quickly evolved towards geometric abstraction.

In 1946, he participated for the first time in the Salon de l'Union des Arts Plastiques which was held at the Museum of Modern Art in the city of Paris. Throughout his life, Melito exhibited in numerous salons and galleries in France and abroad: Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, Salon des Surindépendants, Galerie Bellechasse (Paris), Galerie de l'Université (Paris), etc. He is also a member of the “Structure”, “Espace” and “Associated Artists” groups where he interacts with other artists sharing the same vision of aesthetics based on geometric form. He frequented artists such as Marcel Gromaire and Jean Cocteau and became friends with Marcelle Cahn and Sonia Delaunay.

Melito liked to say that he wanted to express, through his art, “the true reality, the interior reality, that of the soul”, specifying: “I am neither for an imitation of nature, nor for a figuration realistic, nor however for a total abstraction, but I seek to translate sensitive things.” Particularly sensitive to the tensions that emerge from linear forms, Melito creates an inventive and singular language mixing ideograms and symbols whose apparent simplicity conceals arrangements designed to touch the viewer deep within. He uses a warm and brilliant chromatic range which is superimposed on his drawing style and this via various techniques: oils on canvas and on panel, gouaches on paper, collages, mixed techniques or even tapestry cardboards. The art critic Robert Vrinat said of Melito: “(He) creates plastic equivalents based on lines, simple shapes most often rectilinear, almost musical rhythms, and in this severity, knows how to introduce the spark of a fine and supple poetry, and maintain the meaning of life.”