Pierre Skira: New Pastels

Pierre Skira is one of the most distinguished living exponents of the medium of pastel with his own unique forms and colours. He was born in Paris in 1938, the son of the renowned Swiss publisher Albert Skira, who worked with many of the leading European artists of the 20th Century including Matisse, Dalí and Picasso.

Having grown up in this environment Skira became inevitably drawn to the artistic and literary worlds.  Formative childhood experiences included a week with Picasso in the South of France just after the war and watching Matisse at work on his paper cut-outs. 

At the beginning of his artistic career in the early 1960s Skira chose to work largely in oils. In 1975 he abandoned oil in favour of pastel - a medium which has came to dominate his practice and for which he is best known.  His materials are of the highest quality available - those made by Roché, Paris – the oldest pastel manufacturer in the world.

Skira's artistic activities and interest in literature led him to collaborate with some of the most prominent contemporary French writers and philosophers, such as Jean-François Lyotard, Gérard Macé, Pascal Quignard and Patrick Mauriès. He has in turn had his own work published, including a novel - Les Orgues de Glace (Viviane Hamy, 2008).

Skira started exhibiting in 1962, and has since then shown extensively both in France and internationally – including with Jan Krugier in Geneva. His work is held in many public collections such as the Palais de l'Élysée and the Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Pompidou, Paris.

The fully illustrated catalogue includes a recent interview with eminent writer and 20th Century art historian Michael Peppiatt, whose award-winning memoir of Francis Bacon was published in the summer of 2015.