Gaston Xhardez, Brussels (1924-1996). Abstraction. Around 1970.

Silver aluminum frame (normal wear). Frame dimensions: 81 x 101 cm.
Dimensions of the painting: 80 x 100 cm. Signed with the monogram. A restoration.
Gaston Xhardez, Brussels (1924-1996).
Belgian photographer, graphic designer and painter, born in Brussels in an artistic environment, Gaston Xhardez was a student at the Royal Academy of Brussels. In the 1950s man in the city, in his daily environment, the life of ordinary people became his main field of observation. More than in the sphere of Humanist Photography to which she is certainly related, her work is part of the movement of Subjective Photography by Otto Steinert. In the meantime, he meets the world of surrealist artists and becomes a friend of Salvator Dali, Georges Hugnet, Man Ray and many others. His portraits of artists and writers are mainly made in the 1950s and 1960s. The perfect harmony with his subject gives them a rare intimacy, to which the balanced form adds a new feeling of classicism. He was a sought-after advertising photographer and will remain so until the end of his life, thus ensuring a livelihood which will allow him to continue his photographic experiments without any financial worries. He will also pursue an activity of painter, sometimes abstract informal, sometimes in a surrealizing spirit. He died in Uccle in 1996, leaving behind an immense artistic work that remains largely to be discovered.