Along with Henri Matisse, André Derain was the main proponent of Fauvism and one of the leading artists of Classic Modernism. At times, he worked in the style of Cubism together with Picasso in Avignon and took part in exhibitions of the 'Neue Künstlervereinigung München' and of the group 'Der Blaue Reiter'. His main motif was man, whom he represented with increasing linearisation. Derain's aim in this consciously simplified form was to overcome Realism and create a new expression. His formally reduced and androgynous pictorial elements give off an air of intense power, which seems to come from within. Regardless of their abstraction, the artist's figures develop such an expansive human presence that it is easy to understand why the sculptor Alberto Giacometti thought of his paragon André Derain as "the most daring of all". Derain also designed the décor for the Paris Oper and illustrated works by Oscar Wilde, Saint Exupéry and La Fontaine.