School of Nice. Jean-Claude FAHRI, born in 1940 in Paris, died in Monaco in 2012 Composition - Relief 3L3, 1965 Paint and mixed technique in relief Signed, titled and dated on the back 122 x 203 (small accidents) Provenance: Estate of a major southern collector Jean-Claude FAHRI's paintings and compositions are rare on the market, particularly such a relief from 1965, produced quite early in the career of this major 20th-century artist. In 1957, he moved to Nice, where he took drawing classes at the Arts Décoratifs de Nice. There he met the leading artists of the École de Nice: Ben, Gilli Alocco, Malaval and the New Realists Arman and Raysse, who introduced him to the critic Pierre Restany. In 1965/1966, he worked on the "Motorcolors", followed by sculptures in Plexiglas and metal. For a time he worked with César. From 1968 (exhibition at the Iris Clert gallery), he devoted himself mainly to Plexiglas sculptures (with the support of the Polivar factories): columns and discs, pyramids, and then so-called "variable geometry" sculptures. It was in this direction that he developed his work with monumental works. Claude Fournet, former director of the Museums of Nice, says: "His mastery of the plastic material, which was the primary element of his research, is combined with a functionality of form that he borrows from the world of Futurism and the Bauhaus. It is this deviation that underpins every artist today, an act of playful appropriation that places Jean-Claude Farhi masterfully in the line of the Nouveaux-Réalistes when, playing with shapes in his highly coloured material, he offers us sculptures that are so many outlines, drawn in the light of pure colour. The artist is represented in numerous museums and private collections in Europe, America and Asia, and has been commissioned by the French government on several occasions.