Herman Braun-Vega (7 July 1933 in Lima – 2 April 2019 in Paris) was a Peruvian painter and artist.
Although his work has always been figurative, it was at first (before 1970) close to abstraction. It experienced a decisive turning point when the artist came to settle permanently in Paris in 1968. By being in contact with the works of the great masters of painting, Braun-Vega developed the art of pictorial quotation. He decided not to limit his painting to aesthetic research, but to adopt a clear pictorial language accessible to non-specialists even though his works often have several levels of reading. His painting, enriched with references to the history of art, often depicts characters, landscapes, fruits and vegetables from his native Peru. He asserts his mixed origins through syncretic work, often very colorful, interspersed with political messages including transfers of press clippings. The artist, who had set himself as a policy not to paint for saying nothing, defines himself as a witness of his time who wants to activate the memory of the spectator. His artistic production is in line with the trends of New figuration (Nouvelle figuration) and Narrative figuration (Figuration narrative).
Biography Family His father, Francisco Braun Weisbrod, was Jewish born in 1902 under the Austro-Hungarian Empire, in the city of Stuhlweissenberg (Székesfehérvár), currently in Hungarian territory. Francisco (Franz in German) was the first member of the Braun family to emigrate to Peru. He was the older brother of Jacob Braun, who joined him in Peru in 1934 and whose story is recounted in the book The Journey of Jacob Braun: A New Orbit.
His mother, Armida Vega Noriega, was born in Iquitos, capital of the Peruvian Amazon.Biografía
Herman Braun-Vega was born in Lima. His older brother, Max (painter ), was born in February 1932. After Herman, three other siblings were born : Berti (architect and urban planner), Álex (designer) and Aurora (painter and draftsman).
His father bought art reproductions in Paris and had them framed in Peru. As a result, his brother Max was the first to want to become a painter. Herman wanted to do the same as his brother.
Education
In 1950, Herman became the student of Carlos Quizpez Asín at the School of Fine Arts in Lima, where he studied for a year and a half. At the beginning of 1951, his brother Max (19), who signed Fernando Vega, decided to travel to Paris to be a painter. At the end of that year (1951), Herman, only 18 years old, also moved to Paris to be a painter. Introduced by his brother to the poet Jean Sénac, he evolved as soon as he arrived in the Parisian artistic community in a privileged way as a resident of the Hôtel du Vieux-Colombier, then managed by Maria Manton and Louis Nallard. In Paris, he had for the first time the opportunity to see original works by great masters that he had only known until then through reproductions. From that moment he will continue his training as an autodidact, in contact with other artists, and by studying the works of the great masters of painting in museums.
Lima – Paris In October 1952 his son Eric was born from a temporary affair with a young Frenchwoman, Camille Mülder, model of the photographer Albert Monier, who regularly frequented Saint-Germain-des-Prés. Herman had to abandon painting and dedicate himself to interior design, working for Jean Royère on whose behalf he finds himself in charge of opening a decoration agency in Peru. In 1955 he returned to Lima, where he opened an agency with architect Juan Gunther. But soon, despite the success of the business, the need to paint arises again. In Lima, he meets Nicole Boussel, a young mother of two blond children. The blended family he forms with his son, Nicole and her two boys will be a recurring source of inspiration in the years 63 to 66.2 + 3 = Lima, 1963; Eric, Philippe et Bernard, 1963; Nicole au miroir, 1963; Eric, 1965; Nicole y los girasoles, 1965; Eric y el perro, 1966 In 1965, his brother Fernando (Max) died in Ibiza of an overdose of heroin.Hunt, Ken (2011): «Janine Pommy Vega: Beat poet and close associate of Corso, Ginsberg and Orlovsky», 21 February 2011. The Independent (London). Article about the death of the poet Janine Pommy Vega, who in December 1962 married Fernando Braun-Vega. Retrieved 18 March 2016.
A Peruvian in Paris In November 1967, Herman returned to Paris with his son. There he met Lisbeth Schaudinn, a young German and granddaughter of zoologist Fritz Schaudinn, then working as a UNESCO official, who would become the woman of his life. With her, he visited the Picasso Museum in Barcelona in 1968. There he discovered, the series that the master dedicated to the meninas of Velázquez. This discovery marked a decisive turning point in his work. Lisbeth, his wife and model,El artista y su modelo, 1968 provides Herman with logistical support that allows him to devote himself entirely to his art. Living in Paris, he did not forget Peru and made many round trips to Lima. The Peruvian press quickly echoes the success of the country's child with the Parisian critics. He exhibits in Paris, Lima, New York, Brussels... In the 1970s, from exhibitions to exhibitions, he developed new techniques and new themes that would enrich his future works. He travels a lot and his trips to Peru are so frequent that he gets a house built there. From the 1980s, his work resembles his life, shared between European culture and his Latin American origins.
Arcueil In 1999, tired of making daily trips between his apartment on the rue des Apennins downtown Paris and his workshop in Saint-Denis, he decided to sell everything to buy in Arcueil, in the surburbs of Paris, not far from the workshops of his friends Vladimir Velickovic, Antonio Segui and François Arnal, an old factory that he transforms to install both his residence and his workshop. Despite the scale of the project, the architecture of which he designed himself, the pace of his artistic production did not slacken. But health problems began. In 2009, his wife Lisbeth died of illness. After this painful episode, he will eventually find a much younger companion, Violette Wojcik, an enthusiastic admirer, who finds herself suffering from leukemia only a few months after their meeting. He himself suffers from Parkinson’s disease and painfully completes his last paintings in 2014. He felt so much devastated by the loss of Violette in 2016 that his state of health did not allow him to attend the funeral. Despite everything, he shows determination and claims to have his next painting in mind, but he will never paint again until his death on April 2, 2019.
Work Early works (1949-1968), between Lima and Paris
Abstract figuration Young Herman Braun produced paintings that integrated the lessons of modern art and fed on artistic movements like cubism (Still life with red wine bottle, 1949) or impressionism (Banana trees, 1951) that departed from photorealism. Traces of his first stay in Paris can be found in his early production (La Seine, 1952). Most of his work of this period was produced in Lima from 1963. He quickly adopted a very gestural and very free technique which contrasts sharply with the mastery, planning and rigor of execution of his later works (from 1973). The freedom of this technique allowed his figuration to border abstraction (Still life with candleholder, 1960; The birdcage 1963). But soon purely aesthetic considerations (Flying doves, 1963) were not enough to him, he also needed to express himself through his painting.
Talking paintings Thus it happened to him to give a voice to some of his characters (Adam and Eve, 1965; Encuentro en el campo, 1965), or to cut out his painting in boxes in the style of a comic strip in order to insert narrative content (The artist ans his model, 1968) In 1966, he made of his brother Max, the painter Fernando Vega who suddenly died in Ibiza at the age of 33 from a heroin overdose, a heartbreaking portrait. His brother's face is framed, in large letters, by the words "MI HERMANO MAX" ("my brother Max" in Spanish). The irregularity of these letters and the brushstrokes that make up the portrait betray a movement of anger. At the place of the heart, a rip reveals the letters of the site where took place the tragedy: IBIZA. While this painting remains singular regarding the emotion it expresses, it is particularly representative of a fiery, vigorous painting, carried by emotion, guided by intuition. But it is also a painting that speaks, that testifies (in this case, to a personal drama). By making his painting speak, he also reveals a very personal humor. Thus in his version of the Annunciation (La anunciación, 1966), the angel Gabriel asks “Are you a virgin? » (“Eres virgen?” in Spanish) and Mary replies “Not yet” (“todavia no” in Spanish). The narrative effect obtained by cutting his painting into panels (La mort d'un pompier, 1969), he obtains it in the same way by producing a polyptych (Bodegón, 1967) where each panel painting corresponds to the panel of a comic strip. Thus, in May 1968, he produced a triptych (Liberty? Equality? Fraternity?) which for the first time in his work testifies to a current event of his time.
The appropriation of the great masters of painting (1968–1978) In June 1992, in an interview with Eduardo Arroyo and Jorge Semprun, Braun-Vega declared "Picasso is my father, he made me as I am. Velasquez is my master, he trained me as a painter.” He indeed owes to Picasso the great metamorphosis that begins in his work from 1968 and ends in the early 1980s. He explains it as follows: “Making mine the work of others is the great lesson Picasso gave me.” It is indeed by discovering the Meninas series by Picasso at the Picasso Museum in Barcelona in 1968 that he realized that one should not be afraid to appropriate the work of others.
The Velázquez series (1968)
So that as soon as he returned to Paris, launching himself a challenge, he produced, in two and a half months like Picasso (but without imitating him), a series of fifty-three paintings entitled Velazquez laid bare accompanied by the Meninas. It is a cinematic study ("a kind of cartoon") with bright side lights and contrasted colors, of the moments which supposedly preceded the placement of the characters in the pose of Velázquez's famous painting. Herman Braun uses the polyptych technique experimented with in the previous years to achieve the desired narrative effect. He exhibited in Paris at gallery 9. The Parisian critics were won over. Claude Bouyeure, for La Galerie des Arts, judges the “style exercise” “Successful”. Suzanne TENAND, for La Tribune des Nations, sees “paintings full of spirit, enthusiasm and talent”. Paule GAUTHIER, for Les Lettres françaises, remains “confounded by the accuracy of Braun’s system”. Jean-Jacques Lévêque, in Les Nouvelles littéraires, sees it as proof “that a great future is still possible for the ‘painted surface’” and hails, in Le Nouveau Journal, “an astonishing virtuosity in the perspective of layout and animation specific to narrative figuration”. Carol Cutler, Herald Tribune, notes “A stunning performance”. Frédéric Megret, Le Figaro Littéraire, finds the painter “captivating”. Monique Dittière, L'Aurore, salutes «a great audacity» and a «won» bet. Philippe Caloni, Combat, summarizes «On the substance, great intelligence. On the form, perfect mastery». The main multiptych of the series, composed of 17 panels, is on display at the Museum of Antioquia, in Medellín, Colombia, in the Coltejer collection. Other paintings of this series, Velázquez Stripped Bare Accompanied by the Ladies-in-Waiting in Fifty-Three Parts, No. 3 and Velásquez Going to His Easel, are part of the latin american collection of the Blanton Museum of Art at the University of Texas at Austin.
Picasso and Manet (1969–1970)