Haas, Michel, Les coursiers I, 1997
1997
Mixed media on paper
120 x 124 cm
Signed by the artist in pale blue, lower center
“It’s in cities that the sense of the human is most poignant. All my subjects are linked to this. I paint messengers that you see on the street every day; cellos because they have something to do with my own life (I played them for a long time) and because their form has something to do with the human form.”(1)
The paper has been worked, scratched and impastoed almost violently to bring out the shape of a courier, defined more clearly by touches of color. The courier’s materiality and anonymity make him a timeless figure of the city.
1, interview for Libération with Henri-François Debailleux
About the author
Michel Haas (1934-2019)
Michel Haas was born in Paris in 1934. He studied philosophy before turning to the visual arts […] Michel Haas draws his inspiration from the world around him. Living in Paris, he paints life in the city: people captured in moments of life in scenes from everyday life, men, couples, cyclists, animals, men drinking, musicians, dancers, trees, flowers, everything that makes up life.
