Victor Konsens "VIKO" (1915-1998), Musée d'Orsay, Pont Royal
Oil on canvas, 60 x 73 cm.
Signed in the lower left corner. Title and artist's name on the reverse.
Painting from a private collection, purchased at the sale of the artist's atelier after his death.
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Viko was born in Paris on September 5, 1915 to a Jewish family that emigrated from Poland. As a child, he often stayed in the workshop of his father, a carpenter, working in Paris' then artisanal neighborhoods of Belleville and then Ménilmontant. He studied at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, but World War II forced him to go into hiding for safety.
He used a muted, limited palette in his paintings. He was inspired - especially in his first Parisian works - by the paintings of Bernard Buffet. He often painted urban landscapes, but also scenes from the lives of ordinary people; in his paintings and drawings we find fishmongers, newsboys, flower merchants, but also more "exotic" characters, such as gypsies from Saintes-Maries de la Mer in the Camargue , musicians, clowns.... His experiences of persecution and the Holocaust inspired him to create many committed works in which he denounces totalitarianism. He also created portraits, highly prized by collectors. Among the figures he portrayed were many prominent political and artistic figures, including Mr. and Mrs. Pompidou.
