Sam Szafran

During World War II he was hidden in the countryside and later in Switzerland, but returned to Paris in 1944 to live with his mother.

Following abstract beginnings at the Atelier de la Grande Chaumière, where the young artist studied under Henri Goetz, he discovered pastel in the early 1960s.

During the postwar period he encountered as well Jean Arp, Yves Klein, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Joan Mitchell, Alberto Giacometti, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Martine Franck.

[4] The numerous series of staircases, jungle-like greenhouses and studios ("Ateliers") are the result of his obsession with mastering perfectly the somewhat anachronistic technique of pastel.

In December 2019, Sothebys sold Szafran's Imprimerie Bellini for €876,000 from the Louis-Dreyfus Family Collection.