Paul Aïzpiri：10 Years in Remembrance ― Tracing a Career of Love and Happiness ―

Galerie Taménaga Osaka is pleased to present a solo exhibition for Paul Aïzpiri (1919–2016), who concluded his 96-year life in 2016. Entitled “10th Anniversary of Passing: Paul Aïzpiri Exhibition ― Tracing a Career of Love and Happiness ―,” this exhibition brings together approximately 30 works spanning from his early career to his very last years, showcased all in one venue.

Paul Aïzpiri lived in Paris in the early 20th century, during one of the most significant periods in the history of modern painting, and encountered many of the great figures who shaped the Belle Époque—including Tsuguharu Foujita, Modigliani, Soutine, Van Dongen, and Utrillo—all artists with distinctive styles. Inspired in particular by Matisse and Dufy, Aïzpiri later experimented with a style that emphasized the essence of objects by omitting and simplifying lines.

His works from the early 1950s are melancholic, rendered in fine detail with nostalgic colors, but by the 1960s, he began to capture subjects through color and form, showcasing his talent as a colorist. Through the 1970s, his simplification progressed further, and he incorporated unique expressions such as filling backgrounds with patterns, developing his style even more freely in the 1980s. By the 1990s, his works had grown brighter and more lighthearted. In the 2000s, during his later years, he blossomed into a style that could be described as the culmination of his artistic career—one filled with a free, playful spirit unbound by any constraints—and he continued to paint right up until the very end of his life at the age of 96.

Ten years after his passing, we hope you will enjoy this retrospective of Paul Aïzpiri’s artistic journey, filled with love and happiness.