Mattin-Laurent PARTARRIEU
The Basque Cultural Center has two paintings by renowned Basque artist Mattin-Laurent Partarrieu, on display in the restaurant dinning room.
"A painter of Basque origin, Partarrieu has become one of France's most important living artists. As one of the few living painters to have been included in the Museum reference guide, the Benezit, Partarrieu has truly taken his place in art history. Full of life and humour, Partarrieu's paintings are one to watch for the future.”
Mattin-Laurent Partarrieu was invited to the Basque Cultural Center and had an art exhibit there as part of the Basque Educational Organization’s Basque Cultural Day, which took place on October 10th, 1998.
The following Partarrieu paintings are at the San Francisco Basque Cultural Center
Distinguished for his immense talent as a painter and sculptor, for his lucid perspective on Basque society, and for the avant-garde feminism of his work.
Our Tribute: Mattin Partarrieu’s talent extends far beyond his immense qualities as a painter or sculptor. Partarrieu is far more than the spiritual heir to Poulbot, Warhol, and Jean Renoir... Partarrieu is, quite simply, himself.
His dual existence—split between Paris and the Basque Country—afforded him the perfect vantage point from which to cast a gaze upon the society of his time that was at once biting and tender. No one has captured quite as well as he the bashful glances and knowing smiles exchanged between men—men who are typically shy, yet utterly captivated by alluring women who view themselves not as mere objects, but as wielders of a power over the male sex—a power with which they playfully toy.
In this regard, Mattin Partarrieu is an avant-garde feminist who refuses to confine women to the role of victim, casting them instead as gentle enchantresses. The prominence of the "wild woman" in our culture—the witch, the fishmonger, the Mari of folklore, the figure of the Christian Virgin—along with the fact that Basque society long functioned as a matriarchy, likely exerted a profound influence on the artist.
Yet, his talent lies in his ability to embed this collective unconscious within scenes that evoke the Basque Country of both today and yesterday—depicted through specific car models, vintage decals, or clothing styles that have now all but vanished. In this sense, his body of work is as much sociological and ethnological as it is artistic—serving as a magnificent time machine for exploring the landscape of human emotion. Thus, beyond being an artist who successfully broke free from the influence of predecessors like Ramiro Arrue to forge his own colorful path, Mattin Partarrieu is a man who—much like his characters—casts a sparkling, tender, and never-vulgar gaze upon a sex that is anything but weak.
It is a perspective undoubtedly born of the love and respect he holds for the women in his life: his mother, his partner, and his daughter Vanessa—who has inherited his very talent, a talent she herself expresses through the medium of wood.
Perhaps that very love is Mattin Partarrieu’s most precious masterpiece of all…
Franck Sallaberry - Pays Basque Excellence