Volf Roitman - Early Years

Early Years

In 1951, Roitman moved to Paris where he met the founder of the MADI movement, the Uruguayan master painter Carmelo Arden Quin. Following Roitman’s proposal, both artists created the MADI Research and Study Center (for experimental art), which functioned through the 50s in Arden Quin’s Montparnasse studio, an open workshop and research facility which significantly influenced the work of numerous European and North and South American artists then studying and working in the confines of the School of Paris. The Center promoted (1) non-figurative works with irregularly-shaped forms in flat, sharply defined colors; (2) the systemization of articulated, transformable and mechanized sculpture; and (3) an interdisciplinary approach to the arts first promoted by the Futurists but systemized, starting in the 40s, by MADI and by other groups such as Fluxus. In the field of MADI sculpture, massive structures are replaced by a dynamic relationship between the liness and planes of solid forms and the openings with which these forms are pierced. Space thus becomes an integral and equally important part of the work.

Roitman navigated through the Parisian avant-garde scene of cafes, studios and galleries where he drew his main inspiration during those years from the Belgian master George Vantongerloo. He was also inspired with a work from the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris: Malevich’s 1915 seminal work fr:Carré blanc sur fond blanc. “Already plunged into the worlds of Celtic myths, alchemy, and Zen Buddhism, Roitman believed that somewhere in this pale world of absent color, he might discover the absolute. From the beginning, his personal style involved a predominant use of circles, a complete break with Piet Mondrian’s sacrosanct straight linear structures and his orthogonal rigidity, a heresy for which he, like Georges Vantongerloo would often be signaled out and, on occasion, rebucked. ” Roger Neyrat, a French artist and a veteran of MADI in the 50’s, still remembers: “I held this work (a Roitman’s painting, called “The Lost Triangle” -1953) above myself, ready to make it circulate among the few dozens of people assisting at my reading at Claude Dorval Gallery (1995)…It’s the most beautiful MADI work, repeated Carmelo several times. We haven’t ever gone so far in our abstract works!” Roger Neyrat continues: “But beginning in 1956, Roitman initiated a series of more complex compositions where the design became more dynamic, the curves more playful and dancing. Two years later, in New York, this process led to his series of “Memories of Balanchine” (1958–1960), real MADI ballets…A pure joy and an example for new generations. There is so much of joyful emotion on these works, a rare gift even with the great abstract masters. Roitman has gone even further!”

During this period, Roitman’s paintings were exhibited at the following venues:

• Salon des Réalités Nouvelles, Paris: 1952 – 53 – 54 – 55 -56.
• Galerie Suzanne Michel, Paris, February 1953
• Cercle Paul Valéry, La Sorbonne, Paris, 15 June 1953.
• Galerie de l’Odéon, Paris February 1954.
• Galerie Cimaise, in the show "14 Abstract Artistes", Paris, January 1955 acquis les bases solides de l’évolution picturale qui se manifestait alors.
• In November, 1955, Volf Roitman’s exhibition at the Galérie de Beaune in Paris constituted the first solo show by a MADI artist in Europe.
• Galerie Denise René, Paris, a group show in April 1956 .

From 1961 to 1982, Roitman consecrated himself mainly to literature and other creative activities.