Evening Bar Scene French Modernist Cubist Gouache by Guy Nicod

Title: Evening Bar Scene French Modernist Cubist Gouache by Guy Nicod
Guy Nicod (French 1923 – 2021)
Gouache on artist paper, unframed
Size: 15.75 x 19.25 inches (height x width)
Provenance: Artists estate, France
Condition: good overall condition; minor handling creases and soft edge wear consistent with age; colours exceptionally vivid and well preserved

Description:
A vibrant and meticulously constructed modernist composition by French artist Guy Nicod, Evening Bar Scene captures the energy and geometry of social life through richly layered gouache. The composition presents a bustling café interior where figures gather around a curved bar, their movements distilled into angular planes of light and colour.
Rendered entirely in opaque gouache, Nicod’s technique produces depth and precision — light bounces across the room in warm yellows, deep reds, and cool blues. The figures are defined not by line but by tonal contrast and spatial rhythm, their forms fractured yet harmonious in a distinctly cubist vocabulary.
At the centre, a waiter in white serves drinks, while conversations unfold around him beneath the glow of interior light. Nicod’s structural intelligence transforms this everyday moment into a study of balance, abstraction, and human presence.
Rooted in the post-war modernist tradition, Evening Bar Scene bridges figuration and design — simultaneously analytical and alive. The interplay of colour and geometry evokes both Parisian nightlife and the optimism of mid-century art, offering collectors a superb example of Nicod’s distinctive synthesis of order and emotion.