20/02/2026
PIERRE ROY
19/02 – 28/03/2026
37 Rue Vaneau 75007 Paris
Following the presentation of works by Pierre Roy (1880–1950) at Frieze Masters in October 2025, is pleased to present in its Paris space more than twenty pieces mainly from the artist’s Estate, spanning the 1910s to the late 1940s.
First recognized by Guillaume Apollinaire in the early 1910s, Roy was involved with Surrealist circles from the very beginning of the movement (Galerie Pierre, 1925). He developed a particularly close affinity with Giorgio de Chirico, who admired the “strange lyrical grandeur” of his paintings.
In the 1930s, his distinctive still lifes were shown in major galleries in the United States and England (Brummer Gallery; Julien Levy Gallery; Wildenstein & Co), contributing to the spread of certain Surrealist motifs internationally, even as he maintained a deliberately independent stance, simultaneously a precursor and a peripheral figure within Surrealism. During this same period, he also became a significant contributor to Vogue US, shaping the magazine’s visual identity through the covers he designed. During his lifetime, Roy received special attention from critics such as Jean Cocteau, Waldemar George, and Franz Roh who associated him with Magic Realism insofar as he connects the mundane with the more fantastical and irrational aspects of his peers’ paintings. The artist was also notably commented on and collected by American filmmakers Leo Hurwitz (“Mice and Things: Notes on Pierre Roy and Walt Disney”, Creative art, May 1931) and Billy Wilder. Rare on the market, owing to a limited output and early acquisition by major institutional collections (MoMA, Tate Modern, Centre Pompidou), his work has not been the subject of a gallery exhibition of this scale since the 1990s.
Image
Les asperges, c.1935, oil on canvas, 73x50cm
