Opera Gallery in London presents La France de Bernard Buffet, the largest solo exhibition dedicated to the renowned French figurative painter Bernard Buffet (1928-1999) in London in over 50 years.
Running from 3rd October – 2nd November 2025, timed to Frieze week, the exhibition will feature more than 20 rarely seen paintings created between 1951-1998, exploring the artist’s relationship with his native France.
Bernard Buffet was a French Expressionist painter, born in Paris in 1928. At the age of 15, he was admitted into the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts, and by 1947 he had his first solo show in Paris. In 1948, at age 20, was awarded the Prix de la Critique. He died in 1999 in Tourtour, France at the age of 71.
Bernard Buffet, Place des Vosges, 1960, Oil on canvas, 81 x 130 Cm | 31.9 x 51.2 InBuffet developed over the years a distinctive style with an overall mood of loneliness and despair. His work revolved around the culture of his Post-War France: death, sexuality, popular culture and politics.
During the 1950s Bernard Buffet enjoyed worldwide popularity for his expressive figuration, capturing French sensibility post-war and becoming a leading artist of his time. By the end of this decade, notoriety affected his artistic appeal with critics. In the context of his dramatic relationship to French society, the exhibition follows the artist’s deep relationship to the places and customs of his native France.
Compendium
Presented in three sections: Landscapes, Cityscapes and Seascapes, the exhibition will provide a visual compendium of Buffet’s unique relationship with France and his lifelong love of his mother country. “Buffet’s oeuvre is still relevant today,” said the exhibition’s co-curator, Nicholas Foulkes, an esteemed expert on both Bernard Buffet and luxury, who has been a journalist for nearly 40 years and authored the 2016 biography Bernard Buffet: The Invention of the Modern Mega-Artist. He added,“Few people can see beyond Bernard Buffet’s signature. I very much hope that, with this comprehensive exhibition showcasing a variety of his works depicting his beloved France, a wider public will come to appreciate the diversity and technical brilliance of an artist who remains controversial to this day.”
Bernard Buffet, Bigoudi, 1951, Oil on canvas, 196 x 120 Cm | 77.2 x 47.2 InImbued with a sense of existentialism and stark realism, the exhibition pays homage to the artist’s interpretation of both the physical and emotional landscape of post-war France. Buffet once remarked of his paintings, “I do not try to reproduce the world, but to recreate it in a manner that is more true to my own.” Buffet’s view of France was significantly shaped by the experience of living through the Second World War during his formative years in Paris, a perspective that would go onto inform the post-war existentialism of which his work came to be emblematic, alongside his rise and fall with the French elites.
Bernard Buffet – La France de Bernard Buffet
3rd OCTOBER – 2nd NOVEMBER, 2025
www.operagallery.com
See also: Bowman Sculpture Presents Massimiliano Pelletti: “Metamorfosi”
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