Le Miserabilist III
Think of Bernard Buffet as an artist and a comedian. He joins the ranks of the great comedians Charlie Chaplin, Jerry Lewis, and Liberace. Marcel Marceau should be included in this category, the quintessentially French pantomime artist, whom everyone loves -even without fluency in French. Similarly, Bernard Buffet is the entertainer of painting.
Comedy is an art, just as the art of Bernard Buffet is comedy. It is this aspect of the art of Bernard Buffet that his critics misunderstand. Comedy is not his intention. Nonetheless, he is a natural, a born comedian. His critics are to Buffet's paintings as the theater audience which expects drama, but gets farce, instead.
Find, if possible, and view the 6-minute video of Marcel Marceau performing "The Painter" (1975). I am not suggesting Buffet is a pantomime artist. I suggest his paintings can be seen as painted pantomimes. The comparison may help explain Buffet's awkward figures, his work's most distinctive feature. The figures in Buffet's paintings look like pantomime poses frozen in time.
Consider Buffet's repertoire of subjects. Take the clowns of his late phase. Here is a portrait of a clown with a large, red, bulbous nose. Here is a funny musician on-stage, with a tiny violin and bow, and very large shoes. Here we see more clowns painted in a variety of costumes. Here, again, another musician playing the violin on-stage, now wearing a green dunce cap. Here's a series on monkeys, whether Gorillas or Chimpanzees, it's hard to tell. Here is a large picture of a musical duo performing on-stage, a man playing a ukulele, and a woman playing the harp. How funny it would sound if it could be heard! One final example, what looks like a billboard advertisement for a drag show.
The comical aspect of Buffet's painting should have been obvious to the critical establishment by now. It would go far to relieve the anguish that this outsider, this idiot savant of art, has caused the earnest critical establishment. Not humane humor, but laugh-out-loud funny art, has been overlooked by artists. That's just inexcusable in the so-called Postmodern era.
The successful comedian provokes laughter by merely appearing on stage -before even saying one word in jest. His audience has been conditioned to laugh. Buffet's paintings elicit a conditioned response from the critics. They "boo." I suppose the critical establishment resents Buffet making light of their serious attentions. I don't deny the importance of art. Buffet's critics need to lighten up.
One-of-a-kind works of art can be viewed at: https://www.saatchiart.com/account/artworks/1840403