In the summer of 2020, I stumbled upon an oil painting by the French artist and theoretician André Lhote (1885-1962). To ascertain its authenticity, I traveled by train to Paris to present the work to the director of the Association André Lhote, Dominique Bermann Martin, the artist's great-niece. The artwork was yellowed, covered in latex spatter and in need of restoration. The media, including De Volkskrant and the talk show Eva Jinek, paid significant attention to this discovery, which will be included in the artist's official catalogue raisonné.
André Lhote (1885-1962) was an influential French cubist artist and art theorist. He was born on July 5, 1885, in Bordeaux, France. Lhote began his artistic career as a painter and studied at the École des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux, where he developed a strong foundation in traditional painting.
In the early 20th century, Lhote moved to Paris, where he was inspired by the emerging cubist movement. He studied the works of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque and became one of the leading proponents of cubism in France. Lhote was fascinated by the geometric forms and deconstruction of shapes that characterized cubism. Influenced by fauvism and cubism, André Lhote developed his own style. He reduced objects and people to abstract forms, but they did not lose their figurative essence. He experimented with color, form, and perspective, combining them with his unique worldview. As the head of the Academy André Lhote in Montparnasse, he taught hundreds of students, including Tamara de Lempicka and Henri Cartier-Bresson.
In addition to his work as an artist, Lhote was also a respected art theorist. He wrote several books and essays on art and aesthetics, where he expounded his ideas on the role of art in society. Lhote believed that art carried a social responsibility, and artists should strive for harmony between tradition and innovation.
Read the full article in the Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant: https://www.volkskrant.nl/cultuur-media/student-koopt-op-marktplaats-onbekend-werk-van-franse-kubist~ba9b59fa/