Born on August 11th, 1941 in Colmar (Haut-Rhin), 20th century. French. Painter of animated compositions, sculptor of faces, groups, animals. Fantastic Art, raw Art. Born in Alsace, he lives and works in Marly (Moselle), in Lorraine region, coal and iron country. In 1974, he was part of the twelve painters and sculptors who have founded Art-Research group. In 1994, " Le Place d'Armes " in Metz city has seen erecting, on over 3.4 meters height, his Summer Book: an imposing anthropomorphic polychromed cast-iron totem. He participated in group exhibitions, among which: 1965 Circle of Arts in Colmar; 1972, 1974, Europeans Artists in Prüm, Germany; 1974 1977, 1980, 1981, with the Art Research Group in several cities in Alsace, 1981 Contemporary Art Appraisal in Quebec, and Paris: 1974 Salon des Independants since 1975 Salon of French Artists, silver medal in 1981; 1977 Salon d'Automne; etc. He shows collections of works in solo exhibitions, including the first in 1964, in Colmar, followed by others; 1971 Metz; 1973 Nancy; 1979 Bartholdi Museum Colmar Fantasy figures and in 1981 Visions of the Imagination; 1980, 1981, gallery L'Arc-en-Ciel in Paris; 1984 House of Culture in Metz; then at the Arts Gallery Gambetta Metz. Paul Flickinger has first painted before also being asserted in three dimensions. In his two components, paints and sculptures, his work shows a very disturbing case of dissociation of personality. His paintings already showed that he knew many things: Picasso, Max Ernst but above all, the Surrealists, and many others. His paintings, with proven technics and skills, are compositions to characters and fantastic creatures, compositions of extreme complexity, teeming narrative details. But, despite his cultural sources and pictorial Science, its to raw Art that his sculpture looks like; While Gaston Chaissac was also quite informed of his contemporaries, and Dubuffet, transgressing his "asphyxiating culture" was resourced from primitive Flickinger's sculptures belong to two techniques: one, very spontaneous, assembling all the pieces of wood found to create various fellows and beasts, the other rather sophisticated submitting these creatures to molding and then to iron-cast casting In both cases, the sculptures thereby assembled or molten are generously polychromed. This results in characters wildlife or animals often feathered, totally hilarious and yet, as clowns, appealing. We are always troubled by the complexity of those various aspects offered both by his paintings as by his sculptures, which encourages to imagine several people, several authors Flickinger, as a painter, regardless his inspiration which fantastic content, to multiple directions, lends itself to the freedom of other's judgement, is at least completely mastering a traditional narrative technique, common in the surrealist painters and fantasy that must make to unreal recognizable. While Flickinger Sculptor, whose realizations are leading to a set more coherent in its desired hardiness, it's imagination and talent at narrative state, raw.

J. B.

Dictionary of Painters, Sculptors, Designers and Carvers.

Since 1911, the Dictionary is getting richer, becomes more practical, essential for amateurs and Art professionals.

The first of three volumes of the Criticism and documentary Dictionary of Painters, Sculptors, Designers and Carvers of all times and all countries appears in 1911.
But the difficulty is such that the original publisher canceled the publication, which was taken over by the Library Gründ in early twenties.
This first edition, "work of a group of French and foreign writers and specialists, under the direction of E. Bénézit" already has a number of lettering that make interest.
It allows you to quickly find, through a simple alphabetical classification, major data about an artist: identity, dates, origin and biographical and criticism data.

The eight volumes edition, published between 1948 and 1955 significantly increases the number of featured artists and reinforces factual information following a large number of items: bibliography, museum and prices achieved during auctions.
Result of an update that has taken seven years to a team, the Bénézit in ten volumes, published in 1976, which will experience such a great success that it sets the dictionary as a major reference in the field of Art.
A new edition of Bénézit was released in March 1999. Ten years of work were needed to overhaul the whole book.
The used sources are made of hundreds of thousands of documents, from specialized encyclopedia to the smallest newspaper article, through monographs, exhibition catalogs, Art magazines and data from public sales worldwide.
The collection and organization of this set of scattered data, which update is now perform with computers, give to the book its uniqueness.
The Bénézit is not a directory or a register with a pay entry: a drafting committee composed of experts ensures the consistency and quality of the work.
Without interfering regarding the practice of artists, updating the Bénézit tended to be a reflection of the national and international artistic activity, moving through the various and diverse streams of visual arts.
For most artists, be referenced in the Bénézit aside the greatest ancient and modern masters, is an important proof of public recognition .
For the art lover as for the professional, the Bénézit is more than ever an indispensable research tool that can provide general information as well as specific accurate information often unpublished.

The event of 2006 was the publication on March 20th, of a new edition, update, and for the first time in English.
For more information, and in order to benefit of the launch price, proceed to the "purchase the Bénézit" section.