Sam Szafran (1934-2019), is the son of Polish Jewish immigrants. After the war then, after a few years spent in Australia, he returned to Paris in 1951. In 1960, he discovered pastel which would become his favorite technique.  He meets Yves Klein, Django Reinhardt, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Joan Mitchell, Henri Cartier-Bresson and Alberto and Diego Giacometti…  Important exhibitions have been devoted to him, notably at the Maeght foundation in Saint-Paul-de-Vence, at the Musée de la Vie Romantique in Paris, at the Max Ernst museum in Brühl, at the Pierre Gianadda foundation in Martigny…   

The art historian Jean Clair says of his work that “it is one of the most secret and most poetic of this time”. The Dominicans have had the chance, in the past, to be able to present some of the artist's pieces during collective exhibitions and to welcome on their picture rails works by artists in the wake of Sam Szafran. 

The Pontepiscopal exhibition that we dedicate to him during the summer period aims to pay homage to him. Bringing together around fifty pieces from public and private collections, it shows chronologically, in techniques combining in an extraordinary way, the “dry and wet” to use its expression in the film “Ni dieu, ni maître”. His favorite themes are foliage with green greenhouses, the winding and vertiginous staircase, the studio (those of the artists or even the Bellini printing house) and of course the figure – that of Lilette, his wife, in particular) .