Pictorial musical sheets: towards musicalism

Inspired by the Futurists, he made an incursion into the mechanical movement: “Expression of the automobile”, “Expression of the locomotive”, “On a transatlantic”, which will lead him in the early twenties, to elaborate a new conception of The perspective, always trying to introduce time into space.

At the 1920 Salon des Indépendants, he presented his “expressions” of cities, which he hung side by side: Expressions of Saint-Raphael, Expression of Nice, Expression of Monaco, Expression of Cannes.

In 1921, after a long stay in Algeria, he painted “La Casbah d’Alger”, and “Le Mariage des Palmiers”.

In 1923, Marinetti invites him to exhibit with him in Rome, and it is for him the opportunity to resume his work of expression on the Italian capital. He thus realizes his first successful synthesis in “time-space”. Unfortunately, this painting was stolen in 1941 during the looting of his workshop by the nazis, depriving us of a reference work to understand the pictorial evolution of Valensi and his work of synthesis.

The following year he continued his work of superimposing history and geography with Fes the mysterious. And it was that same year, 1924, that he met Yvonne – his future wife – for the first time at the Salon des Indépendants.

In 1925, Valensi sets out for a tremendous journey in the Sahara, the first crossing of the desert into “six-wheeled Renault”. On his return, he painted Across the Sahara, a musical work where he represented time zones, representing the variations of light for twenty-four hours.

After the Sahara, it will be Spain and two great works: A race of bulls (for which Valensi will do many studies), and Toledo or the Homage to Greco (1927). That same year and always on the musicalist principle, it will be the Railroad Journey.

In 1929, he made an important personal exhibition of his paintings and gouaches, at the Danthon Gallery in Paris: ´Pictorial musical sheetsª.

Finally, in 1930, he ventured into self-portraiting, using colors and lines mixed with a few evocations, to translate what he felt to be his own fulfillment during his forty-seven years. He made three or four studies no more, but to tell the truth this prototype of the portrait musicist did not excite him.