Roger Bezombes, French Modernist Mourlot Lithograph Vintage Air France Poster Roger Bezombes, 1980

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Vintage French Travel Poster, Air France Roger Bezombes (1913-1994) French Bezombes was a painter, sculptor, medalist, and designer. He studied … Read more Vintage French Travel Poster, Air France Roger Bezombes (1913-1994) French Bezombes was a painter, sculptor, medalist, and designer. He studied in Paris, at the École des Beaux-Arts, and was much influenced by his friendship with Maurice Denis. Heavily influenced by surrealism, He worked principally as a painter, adopting the saturated Fauvist colors of Henri Matisse in landscapes and figure studies often based on observation of “exotic” cultures, notably Mediterranean and North African. Constrained, because a very young orphan, to all kinds of professions which provide him with the material means to devote himself to painting - he participated in 1930 in the installation of the exhibition of the Bauhaus at the Grand Palais-, Roger Bezombes is student of the National School of Fine Arts in Paris. (Ecole des Beaux Artes) He was trained in the art of fresco by Paul Baudoüin, René Barotte nonetheless restores that the young man's preference goes to the practice of "truancy" which he uses to make copies at the Louvre Museum. It’s the time when Paul Gauguin’s paintings, Vincent Van Gogh and Henri Matisse are revealed to him by Maurice Denis with whom he will remain close until his accidental death, painting him on his funeral bed on November 14, 1943. He executed surrealist tapestry designs for Aubusson and Gobelin tapestries, posters (winning the Grand Prix de l'Affiche Francaise in 1984), costumes and sets for ballets at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York, reliefs and murals. In 1965 he took up medal-making, expressing in his numerous metallic works for the Paris Mint that obsession with found objects which is also evident in his large-scale sculpture and in his posters. He designed posters for Air France and for the French national railways. Roger Bezombes went to Africa for the first time in 1936 thanks to a travel grant and received the same year the second grand prize of Rome . In 1937 he traveled around Morocco where he became friends with Albert Camus. The year 1938 offered him both his first solo exhibition at the Charpentier gallery in Paris with paintings and gouaches on the theme of Morocco and the attribution of the national grand prize for the arts, earning him a great journey which , from Dakar to Algiers , takes it through Chad , Tamanrasset and Hoggar. Roger Bezombes became a professor at the Julian Academy in 1950. For him, 1951 was the year of a trip to Greece and the year where he began his relationship with tapestry work. Roger Bezombes visited Israel in 1953, Tunisia and Egypt in 1954. He was appointed official painter of the Navy in 1955. Pierre Mazars analyzes that “after a period where we notice the influence of Van Gogh and GeorgesBraque, particularly in his landscapes of Provence, he came to a more schematic writing, the colored spots and the thicknesses of material taking more of importance as the subject. He even performed composite works, half-watercolors, half-pasted papers, in which he incorporated pieces of newspapers”. He was elected titular to the Academy of Overseas Sciences in 1978. "The range of Bezombes' talent forms is remarkable,” writes Lynne Thornton, “ranging from paintings, murals, travel posters, tapestry cartons, book illustrations, monumental ceramic decorations, ballet and theater sets, totem sculptures, sculpture objects, jewelry and medallions”. He was part of the mid century mod School of Paris that included Leon Zack, Bernard Lorjou, Paul Augustin Aizpiri, Gabriel Godard, Michel Henry, Hans Erni, Bengt Lindstrom, Alfred Manessier, Andre Hambourg, Raymond Legueult and Jean Rigaud. Select Solo Exhibitions: 1938: Galerie Charpentier, Paris 1950, '53, '55, '57: Galerie Andre Weil, Paris 1953:Wildenstein Gallery, London 1954: Institut Francais, Cologne 1956: Galerie Matarasso, Nice 1957: Horn Gallery, Luxembourg; Guilde de la Gravure, Paris 1958: Denys-Puech Museum, Rodez 1962: Musee de l'Athenee, Geneva; Chateau Grimaldi, Cagnes-sur-Mer 1966: Galerie des Ponchettes, Nice 1967: Galerie Martel, Montreal 1968: Romanet-Vercel Gallery, New York; Reattu Museum, Arles; Le Corbusier Center, Firminy 1969: Galerie Philippe Ducastel, Avignon; Musee des beaux-arts d'Orleans 1970: "Roger Bezombes: Murals, Masks, Medals," Palais de l'Isle, Annecy; Musee des beaux-arts de Reims 1971: Musee des beaux-arts de Nimes; Musee des beaux-arts de Besancon 1972: Musee de la Monnaie, Paris; Galerie Presence de l'art, Cannes 1975: Musee du Bastion Saint-Andre, Antibes; Musee des Ursulines de Macon 1979: Abbaye des Prémontrés de Pont-à-Mousson 1981: "Roger Bezombes - Vie du monde, Sixteen Posters for Air France," Center Georges-Pompidou, Paris 1984: Centre Culturel du Marais, Paris 1987: "Roger Bezombes - retrospective," Tokyo, Osaka 1993: "Chaussures Insolites: Roger Bezombes," Musée international de la chaussure 2008: "Roger Bezombes retrospective," Reattu Museum, Arles 2015/'16: "Roger Bezombes: Life Around the World," FIAF Gallery, New York Select Group Exhibitions: 1937: Salon d'automne, Salon des independants, and Salon des Tuileries, Paris 1943: "Contemporary French Artists," Madrid, Spain 1949: "Twenty Years of Sacred Art," Rio de Janiero, Brazil; Salon de l'Imagery, paris; Salon des artistes decorateurs, Musee des Arts Decoratifs, Paris 1950: "The French Tapestry," Tunis, Copenhagen 1951: "Salon of painters, Witnesses of their time," Palais Galliera, Paris; 1st Sao Paolo Biennial 1951-1952: Galerie Drouant-David, Paris 1956-1965: Salon Comparaisons, Paris 1958: Pavilion Francais de l'Exposition Universelle, Brussels 1961: Salon Grands et Jeunes d'aujourd'hui, Hotel Martinez, Cannes 1967: Montreal World's Fair; International Exhibition of the Monnaie, Musee de la Monnaie, Paris 1974: Festival of the Arts, Adelaide, Australia; 5th Biennale des arts graphiques, Warsaw 1975: "The Bestiary of Coins, Seals, and Medals,' Musee de la Monnaie, Paris; Tapestry Biennale, Dublin 1981: "Humor and the Medal," Musee de la Monnaie 1987-1988: "Paris - Prague," Hotel de la Monnaie, Paris and the National Gallery, Prague 2017: "The Orient Dreamed by the West," Marrakech Art and Culture Museum See less