Biography

His style was exclusively figurative and is often classified as Expressionist or "miserabilist".

Picasso further worsened Buffet's reputation by publicly denigrating his work, and Buffet also attracted the enmity of novelist André Malraux, the powerful French Minister of Culture. Finally, Buffet's critical reputation was also affected by his tremendous and sometimes indiscriminate output. In the 1990s, he claimed he had completed a painting a day for more than four decades. In the words of one art historian, many of these works were "unequivocally bad".

Buffet died by suicide at his home in Tourtour, southern France. He was suffering from Parkinson's disease and was no longer able to work. Police said that Buffet died after putting his head in a plastic bag attached around his neck with tape.

Buffet created more than 8,000 paintings and many prints as well.

On 23 November 1973, the Bernard Buffet Museum was founded by Kiichiro Okano, a private collector in Surugadaira, Japan.