Nude woman from behind

ARTIST: Pierre MANTRA
TECHNIQUE: Oil on canvas
PERIOD: Circa 1970
DIMENSIONS without frame: 50 x 100 cm
DIMENSIONS with frame: 53 x 103 cm
Original work signed lower left
Pierre MANTRA, a Swiss painter born in 1935 in Geneva, knew from a young age that he would become an artist. His future seemed mapped out in Swiss meticulousness, but he chose another direction, even if the price would be high. After studying at the Geneva School of Fine Arts, he fled to Paris at only seventeen. For a year, he worked at André Lhote's academy and then met Auguste Herbin, who would become his mentor and seal his destiny as a painter. In 1954, Pierre Mantra became the youngest exhibitor at the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, alongside such luminaries as Vieira da Silva, Hartung, and Vasarely. He immersed himself in the theosophy of Rudolf Steiner and the Goethanum to deepen his knowledge of colors, the golden ratio, and magic squares. However, his need for the absolute and personal expression led him to an abstraction bordering on the figurative. His first successes came quickly, with gallery contracts and exhibitions in Paris and New York. At just 25, his career took off. Between 1958 and 1959, his style evolved toward a minimalist pointillist abstraction, characterized by visual mantras and incantatory brushstrokes. Family responsibilities forced him to leave the Parisian scene and retreat to the Arch of Lanza Del Vasto, where he adopted a nonviolent, meditative, and spartan life. An early ecological retreat ensues.
Notable Exhibitions:
Niveau Gallery, Madison Avenue, New York
Galerie Bellechasse, Paris
Galerie du Perron, Geneva
Musée Rath, Geneva
Galerie Entremonde, Paris
Galerie Marcel Lenoir, Paris
*This work is sold as is. Due to its pre-owned nature, the buyer accepts the possibility that it may contain signs of use, wear, fragility, age, or restoration due to the passage of time.

Ref: ZDXGIJO00B