Joseph LACASSE

'Balancement majeur' is a splendid example of Lacasse’s series of so-called ‘Balancement’ paintings with which he so ingenuously responded to the popularity Serge Poliakoff had gained during Lacasse’s six-year absence from Paris during the War years, these having been spent in England as a resistance fighter under the government of Charles de Gaulle.

Upon his return to Paris in 1946, Lacasse was disillusioned to find that the public seemed to have forgotten his abstract works from the 1930s which had initially inspired Poliakoff. Sonia Delaunay was one of the few who was appalled at art history’s disdainful treatment of Lacasse’s work and wrote several times about Poliakoff’s debt to Lacasse.

However, Lacasse's adherence to the 'Beatitudes' of Thomas Aquinas led him to return to the art market with this delightful series of works, whose mystical balancing of forms are masterfully executed in lyrical impressionist brushwork.