I am not trying, says Guy Buffet, "to convey a message in my work. Instead, each painting is an invitation to a world where my dreams and fantasies become reality." Since he sold his first watercolor at the age of thirteen to an American tourist who was visiting the Buffet family restaurant in Paris, that reality has included, among other things, landscapes of Polynesia, dreamscapes of Hawaii, several battalions of quirky French culinary workers, historical scenes of the French Revolution, and a few dour Scotsmen on wind-blasted moors unaccountably trying to play golf. His sublime sense of the burlesque is unparalleled and infectious.
Buffet's father was sixty-three years old when his son was born in 1943 and died before Guy was a teenager. For his twelfth birthday Guy's mother gave him a set of paints and brushes, which he passionately put to use. In 1957 he and his mother moved to a town in Provence near the Mediterranean port of Toulon, where she enrolled him in the Beaux Arts de Toulon Art School. The following year he began to study advanced painting at L'Academie de Peinture de la Ville de Paris, and his studies continued there until he was drafted into the French Navy in 1961.
While serving on the cruiser De Grasse as gunner's mate, Buffet had his first one-man show. Organized by the Mayor of Papeete, Tahiti at the Gallerie Mourareau, the show was a sellout. As the cruiser made calls on other ports in the Pacific, Guy continued his one-man shows. In this way, a certain young French sailor began to make a name for himself in the world of international art. Today he is world famous for his whimsical humor.
Considerations of space preclude mentioning more than a fraction of Guy Buffet's artistic accomplishments. He has assembled countless one-man shows in literally every part of the globe and served as official artist for numerous advertising campaigns, including Champagne Perrier-Jouet, Absolut Vodka, Aloha Airlines, and the Tour De France. His works are displayed in several museums, including La Musée de la Monnaie in Paris, the Museum of the French Navy in Toulon, the Honolulu Academy of Art, and the John Deere Museum. They are part of more than twenty corporate collections, including Seagrams, IBM, Bank of America, Grand Marnier, Westin Hotels, and American Isuzu Motors. His art has been chosen by thousands of private collectors, among whom are Maurice Chevalierk, Jackie Stewart, Rory Calhoun, Kirk Douglas, Rod Stewart, John Harrison, Edgar Bronfman, John McVay, Charles Feeney, Van Cliburn, Paul Bocuse, Wolfgang Puck, and the former American Vice-President Dan Quayle.
"Art should be something to enjoy and help you forget your worries. I invite the viewer to share my experience; I take you into my world like a guest into my home. I want you to be comfortable and relaxed. When people take a painting of mine into their home because it makes them happy and they like it, it has accomplished its purpose."
