In 1945 Brauner had returned to Paris with his second wife Jaqueline and began working at his studio in 2bis Rue Perret. This change of scenario contributed to the evolution of Brauner’s technique, pushing him to develop his experimentations in a new direction. As a result, in the late 1940s, the artist started to use wax in his production predominantly as a patina to cover the colours and shapes of the composition, giving his work a unique finish that he would become renowned for.

Poète en Exil, was realised by spreading hot beeswax on the pictorial surface and successively marking it with incisions which would later be highlighted with ink or black paint. This piece is a stunning example of the marriage between Brauner’s ingenious technique and his subjects of cabalistic inspiration and alchemic nature. The work presents an archetypal, metamorphic body devoid of context and volume, settled in a bi-dimensional perspective. The enigmatic subject is totemic in style, and presents a brightly-coloured, two-headed figure. The top, squared head has two arms holding the sun and the moon (as suggested by the inscriptions in the painting). An additional pair of arms appears below, attached to the subject’s torso, which is covered by a puffed, red top. With its other set of hands, the figure grasps a pair of lips topping a flower stem, and a green and brown folding fan. The subject seems to have been caught in motion, which is suggested through the positioning of the figures feet, with a spurred boot playfully lifted from the ground. In this work Brauner reflects on the mythology and role of the poet. A subject that had been previously explored both in art and literature, is here reinterpreted and introduced using the new visual imagery of Brauner's world. Fascinated by mysticism and the symbols belonging to the Egyptian and Amerindian cultures, Brauner set out to create a series of works called 'Codex du poète' which represent the figure of the poet in a new light. The series captures the different stages of the rebirth of the poet, starting from their exiled condition and ending with their complete rebirth, in a vision remaining strongly influenced by mystical and historical interpretations of the intersection between birth and death.

Biography

Born in 1903 in Piatra Neamt, Romania, Brauner studied at the National School of Fine Arts in Bucharest. Throughout the early years of his career, Brauner experimented with different artistic styles including Modernism, Expressionism, Abstractionism, and Dada. Starting from 1924, while working at the magazine 75HP, founded alongside poet Ilarie Voronca, Brauner started to solidify his artistic language and narrowed the scope of his influences. After moving to Paris in the early 1930s, he met Constantin Brâncusi, and lived in the same building as Yves Tanguy and Alberto Giacometti. In the same period, Brauner became close with André Breton, who wrote the introduction to the catalogue of Brauner's first exhibition in Paris, held at the Pierre Gallery. As a result, Brauner became associated with the Surrealist movement, based on the interests and directions his careers was already taking. While keeping this association in mind, after the World War II, Brauner developed a new imagery, including references to Egyptian hieroglyphics and Tarot card imagery, through which he expressed an original and unique vision of existence.

Today his works are held in many major collections around the world, including: Centre Pompidou, Paris; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; and The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York.