Lot description
oil on canvas, 55 x 46 cm, signed lower right: J. Sima, verso further inscribed with the letter F; verso old exhibition label Paul Facchetti Gallery; verso old transport label Lemoine Pérignon et Cie with no. 94; verso label with no. 123. Provenance: Paul Facchetti Gallery, Paris; M. Pierre Bonnasse, Paris; private collection. Exhibited: Joseph Sima, Paul Facchetti Gallery, 17 Rue de Lille Paris, November 1960. Publicated: Joseph Sima, published by Paul Facchetti Gallery, Paris, November 1960, reproduced in catalogue; Josef Sima, Obrazy a kresby, published by the National Gallery in Prague and the Union of Czechoslovak Fine Artists in 1968, reproduced under the title Chaoticke (zelene) under no. 123; Sima, Frantisek Smejkal, Cercles d‘Art, Paris, 1992, reproduced and described under no. 328 on p. 310; Atlas malirske techniky, Josef Sima, Tomas Berger, published by Tomas Berger in 2025, reproduced on p. 48. Consulted with Dr Irena Zantovska Murray HonFRIBA, Professor Jaromir Zemina, Dr Jiri Machalicky and Vladimir Lekes. Authenticity certificate enclosed. The main theme of the offered canvas by Josef Sima is light: the painting seems almost immaterial, or even monochrome, but very subtly shaded. Sima painted such works with a very complex and specific technique, drawing upon the whiteness of the background which shines through a thin layer of paint, thus increasing the luminosity of the painting. Included within it is a line drawing depicting geometric shapes, in this case several irregular quadrilaterals, related to the idea of the earth and harmoniously contrasting with the dissolving colours.
