Johann Naldi
Art advice - Art expertise - Art trade

ARTS INCOHERENTS. DECOUVERTES & NOUVELLES PERSPECTIVES
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En 2018, le galeriste et expert Johann Naldi découvre chez des particuliers une malle dans laquelle sont conservées 17 œuvres du mouvement des Arts incohérents, groupe d’artistes anticonformistes actifs à Paris entre 1882 et 1893. Leurs expositions détonantes, bousculant les règles établies, rencontrèrent un succès critique et populaire considérable et ouvrirent la voie aux avant-gardes du XXe siècle, dadaïsme et surréalisme en tête.
Parmi les œuvres retrouvées, le premier monochrome et le premier ready-made de l’histoire de l’art que les historiens pensaient perdus à jamais. Classées Trésor National par le ministère de la Culture en mai 2021, ces pièces d’une importance patrimoniale majeure constituent les seuls témoins d’un mouvement dont toutes les productions – mille environ – ont disparu. En 1992, le musée d’Orsay leur avait d’ailleurs consacré une exposition sans œuvre !
À partir des œuvres retrouvées, les auteurs proposent une nouvelle lecture d’un mouvement longtemps relayé au rang d’art mineur et s’attachent à porter un regard neuf sur une production résolument inclassable.
Admiré par Marcel Duchamp et André Breton notamment, le mouvement des Arts incohérents retrouve aujourd’hui sa place dans la grande histoire de l’art.
DISPONIBLE EN VERSION ANGLAISE
Redécouvrir une oeuvre oubliée : le cas n'est pas si rare. Découvrir une oeuvre légendaire qui passait pour disparue : c'est moins fréquent.
L'importance historique de la découverte est certaine.
Philippe Dagen, Le Monde - 4 février 2021
Matinale Radio Classique 8 février 2021
La découverte des Arts incohérents sur Franceinfo - 7 février 2021
19 œuvres des
Arts incohérents classées
TRéSOR NATIONAL
Les Arts incohérents classés Trésor National dans Le Monde - 10 mai 2021
Les Arts incohérents classés Trésor National dans Le Quotidien de l'Art - 10 mai 2021
Les Arts incohérents classés Trésor National dans Actualitté - 7 mai 2021
Les Arts incohérents classés Trésor National dans The Art Newspaper - 10 mai 2021
Les Arts incohérents classés Trésor National dans L'Oeil - juin 2021
Les Arts incohérents classés Trésor National dans Beaux Arts Magazine - juillet 2021
La découverte des Arts incohérents dans L'Oeil - septembre 2021
La découverte des Arts incohérents dans The Artist Magazine - octobe 2021

Vue des Arts incohérents retrouvés
Les Arts incohérents dans Point de Vue - 18 mai 2022
Les Arts incohérents dans le Figaro Magazine - 15 avril 2022

Les Arts incohérents refont l'Olympia dans Challenges - 24 mars 2022
Les Arts incohérents exposés à l'Olympia sur Beware - 17 août 2022
Redécouverte des Arts incohérents. Quand la légende devient réalité. Switch on Paper - 17 décembre 2021
About us :
Treasure seekers, art archaeologists, passionate discoverers... This is how those who, like me, devote a large part of their lives to searching for missing or unpublished works could be qualified. From Leonardo da Vinci to Caravaggio, via Gustave Courbet and Vincent van Gogh, there are many artists whose forgotten works (sometimes the most important ones) have yet to be (re)discovered, slumbering in dark attics or other ignored cellars. Contrary to a widespread idea, sometimes even maintained by certain actors of the market and the history of art, the corpus of many major artists is far from being definitively closed. Proof of this is the recent discovery of Leonardo da Vinci's Salvatore Mundi or Rembrandt's Portrait of a Young Man, wonderfully brought to light by the Dutch art dealer Jan Six. Often subject to the most violent controversies (one will think of the famous Brouillard d'Arles falsely attributed to van Gogh or Courbet's improbable head of the Origine du monde), these discoveries nevertheless fascinate a very large public always eager for novelty and sensationalism.
For my part, I was lucky enough to find several original paintings and drawings that had been missing for more than a century, which were totally unknown to the public and specialists. Among them, a large painting by Gustave Courbet, the famous artist of Realism, representing a Baigneuse dans un paysage, exhibited for the first time in its history in October 2019 at the Gustave Courbet Museum in Ornans. It is easy to imagine, such a discovery, probably the most impressive new painting by the master who has come out of oblivion, arouses intense emotion and joy in the person who makes it. A few years ago, another of my beautiful adventures was the discovery of a notebook of unpublished drawings by Eugène Delacroix, whose famous Liberté guidant le peuple has become one of the great icons of French painting. Its owner, a collector and art lover, had bought it for a few coins at a flea market in the Paris area. He did not know anything about its author, and asked me to help him in his research. Appointment taken, he showed me the famous notebook consisting of about twenty sheets filled with studies and beautifully drawn sketches. Two years of meticulous investigation were necessary to convince the experts and specialists of the painter. Faced with novelty and works devoid of any traceable provenance, resistance is generally very hard. But the much-hoped-for victory was indeed achieved: our notebook was sold at a prestigious auction house Artcurial, and ended up joining the collections of an institution.
Let there be no mistake about it: getting the authenticity of an unpublished work of art without any archival trace recognized is a real struggle, an adventure strewn with pitfalls, sometimes discouraging, requiring the implementation of complex strategies. Few works of this nature cross the finish line. In a world where everyone has their say, you can expect to take a few blows and hear the most contradictory opinions. Periods of despondency are not uncommon, there are many disappointments, but my experience has taught me that one must avoid letting oneself be taken in by the doubts of pessimistic interlocutors and inaccessible to the dream, so important in terms of discoveries...
Most of the works gathered below were acquired by me in auctions, antique markets, flea markets or entrusted by private individuals who did not know the identity of their authors. They were stripped of any attribution or wrongly described, and have been the subject of a meticulous investigation leading to their identification, confirmed by authoritative specialist experts, whom I hasten to thank.

Vincent van Gogh
« What would life be like if we didn't have the courage to try anything ? »
Some of our discoveries :

Gustave Courbet (1819-1877)
Femme nue couchée au bord de l'eau, around 1869
Oil on canvas, 83,3 x 160 cm
Exhibition : Courbet/Hodler. Une Rencontre,
Musée Gustave Courbet, Ornans, 31 October 2019 - 6 January 2020

Gustave Courbet (1819-1877)
Autoportrait dans un hamac, entouré d'un groupe de six figures
Drawing with black chalk, sanguine and white chalk on paper
43,5 x 42 cm
Exhibitions :
Courbet dessinateur, musée Gustave Courbet, Ornans,
14 February - 29 April 2019
Musée Jenisch, Vevey (Suisse)
1 November 2019 - 2 February 2020

Eugène Delacroix (1798-1863)
Album de dessins de jeunesse inédit
Sale : Artcurial, Paris, 28 March 2012, lot n°205
Sold : 311 235 euros fees included

Théodore Géricault (1791-1824)
La main gauche de l'artiste
Oil on papier laid on canvas, 37,4 x 27,8 cm
Exhibitions: Visages de l'effroi, violences et fantastiques de David à Delacroix,
Musée de la Vie Romantique, Paris, 2 November 2015 - 28 February 2016
Musée de la Roche-sur-Yon, 19 March - 19 June 2016

John Constable (1776-1837)
A young girl in a woodland landscape
Oil on paper laid on panel.
We have identified it as a John Constable's work, which will be confirmed by Graham Reynolds and Conal Shields, specialists on the artist.

Théodore Géricault (1791-1824)
Etude préparatoire pour le cheval gris blanc
Oil on paper laid on a board
Around 1812 - 1814
15 x 18 cm
We have identified it as a Theodore Gericault's work, which will be confirmed by Bruno Chenique, specialist on the artist.

Théodore Géricault (1791-1824)
Portrait de Théodore Lebrun
Oil on canvas, 61 x 50 cm
We have identified it as a Theodore Gericault's work, which will be confirmed by Bruno Chenique, specialist on the artist.

Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky (1817-1900)
Deux-mâts sous la lune
Oil on canvas laid on panel
We have identified it as a Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky's work, which will be confirmed by Ivan Samarine, specialist on the artist.
Our references :
We would like to thank the many collectors who have placed their trust in us, as well as the institutions that have acquired or exhibited some works from our gallery :
- la Bibliothèque Nationale de France
- la Bibliothèque - Musée de l'Assemblée Nationale
- la Fondation Custodia
- la Fondation Dubuffet
- Musée de la Piscine de Roubaix par l'intermédiaire d'Artcurial, sculpture par Emile Peynot "Pro Patria"
- Musée du Comité National des Traditions Monégasques, Monaco
- Musée Fabre, Montpellier
- Musée de Bastia
- Musée Carnavalet, Paris
- Musée de la Légion d'Honneur, Paris
- Société des Amis de Marcel Proust
- Musée de la Piscine de Roubaix par l'intermédiaire d'Osenat, huile sur toile par Rémy Cogghe "Etude préparatoire pour le Combat de Coqs en Flandre
- Musée Gustave Courbet, Ornans
- Musée de la Vie Romantique, Paris
- Musée Vivan-Denon, Chalon-sur-saône
- Musée de la Roche-sur-Yon
- Musée d'art Roger-Quilliot, Clermont-Ferrand
- Musée des Beaux-arts de la Rochelle
- Musée Jenisch, Vevey, Suisse
- Musée jurassien d'art et d'histoire, Delémont, Suisse
Johann Naldi, Paris
