Party, Nicolas | Untitled (cat), 2017 — available on Composition Gallery

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Watercolour on paper. Hand-signed by artist, Signed verso.

A solitary blue cat sits on a soft blue-grey horizon, body painted in flat watercolour washes of slate and cobalt, tail rising in a slow S-curve at the right, geometric face features facing the viewer head-on. The pose recalls Egyptian funerary cats; the colour is pure Party. Watercolour on paper, hand-signed verso. Party's animals are as collected as his portraits — quiet, considered, profoundly modern in their reduction. A delightfully focused work to acquire for any collection following one of the most desirable contemporary painters of his generation.

Nicolas Party (Switzerland, 1980) is a contemporary artist celebrated for his surreal, vividly colored landscapes and portraits. Working across painting, sculpture, and installation, he reimagines classical genres with a modern twist. Party’s art often features soft pastel as a primary medium, creating dreamlike atmospheres that captivate viewers.

Nicolas Party

Untitled (cat), 2017

Name: Untitled (cat), 2017
SKU: 17525

Form

Painting

PaintingPainting is the process of applying media to a surface, using a tool such as a brush. The term refers to both the action and the resulting object. Artists use many tools to paint, such as brushes, airbrushes, palette knives, sponges or fingers and hands.

Medium

Watercolor

WatercolorWatercolor refers to both the medium and the resulting artwork created using pigments suspended in a water-soluble vehicle. Watercolors are known for their luminous, transparent appearance because the pigments are applied in pure form with minimal fillers. By adding Chinese white, the watercolor can become opaque, resembling gouache.

Edition

Unique work

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●Inventory 17525

●Signed

Limited Edition Print

Mixed Media

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The contemporary painter, installation artist, and sculptor, Nicholas Party, is most well-known for the critically acclaimed way in which he unites a disquieting form of representation with otherwise soothing pastel colors and flowing, simplified organic shapes. Although his works characteristically feature sharp demarcations between the various subjects and elements of his compositions, they nevertheless reflect his early interest in graffiti art, exhibiting an air-brushed quality.

His landscapes feature highly stylized, abstracted depictions of trees, shrubs, and other flora, which are reminiscent of both Félix Vallotton's unemotional landscapes and Theodor Seuss Geisel's well-known illustrations.

With respect to his portraits, Nicholas Party's figures appear both imposing and yet supple, owing to his skilled use of shading. Although irrealist in form, his subjects often stare out from the canvass with wide, penetrating eyes, much in the manner of Ferdinand Hodler's realist portraits. By denuding his own subjects of the detail associated with realist representations and depicting them as androgenous, Party's subjects appear uncanny and intense—features which are exacerbated by his use of solid backgrounds and the unusual perspective imposed upon them.

Artwork by Alex Katz

What is figurative art?

Sometimes known as Figurativism, figurative art refers to sculptures and paintings that are clearly or specifically derived from real objects, making them representational. The term figurative art is often used in contrast to abstract art. However, since the emergence of abstract art, figurative art has come to describe any form of modern art that has strong references to the real world or actual situations.

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Nicolas Party

Untitled (cat), 2017

18 x 13.5 cm

Language & Currency

Nicolas Party