Back on the secret and unusual artist which was recently celebrated in a retrospective at the Gianadda foundation in Switzerland.

Sam Szafran is the pseudonym of Samuel Berger, born in Paris in 1934

French painter, draftsman, pastel and engraver.

Fear as a starting point ...

This son of Polish Jewish immigrants from childhood is tossed between the strict traditions of his family and the busy streets of Les Halles. It is said that the death of his father, the artist would have been given the severe tutelage of his uncle, who would one day pretending to rush into the pit of the stairs. As an outlet to escape the trauma of this event, Sam Szafram will therefore put staircase at the heart of his work.

A work that reflects the soul...

Turning staircases, spiral staircases, wave, defying the laws of perspective.

Deformation of the angles, foreshortening of perspective... Sam Szafran combines on the same plane different perspectives on plunged and cons-diving.

Monumental stairs open onto the empty, on windows, or blind walls, developing a logical of vertigo. Suspended in space by a thread, they actually lead into the depths of the soul and the painful memories of the artist's childhood.

An artist "forbidden"

The work of Sam Szafran attracts as much as surprises and disturbs his drawings sometimes appear as "inhabited" by a dark force. His name alone evokes a world, prohibited.

His large format works are sold up to 300,000 Euros.

Vanessa Koutchinsky

Credits photo : 1/ courtesy of Millon et Associés 2/ courtesy of Versailles Enchères Perrin-Royère-Lajeunesse.