ROBERT COMBAS A SOLO EXHIBITION OF INTERNATIONALLY KNOWN FRENCH PAINTER ROBERT COMBAS AT CAPE TOWN ART FAIR 2017

ROBERT COMBAS

ROBERT COMBAS A SOLO EXHIBITION OF INTERNATIONALLY KNOWN FRENCH PAINTER ROBERT COMBAS AT CAPE TOWN ART FAIR 2017 Robert Combas is a hotheaded, addicted to life, death, sex and cosmos. Born in France in 1957, he is one of the most famous painters of his generation. His art is the image of his magical genius and catalyzes his passion and intelligence. And the audience did not mistake it. He founded the Free Figuration movement at the beginning of the eighties: a come back to figuration drawing on a wide cultural and expressive panel and a rupture with the austere aesthetics of minimalism and arte povera. Since then, Free Figuration has entered the pantheon of art history. It praises western and non-western art, raw art, fine arts and applied arts alike without distinction. Robert Combas is a painter of life. His painting is gestural, like a dance that gets the artist into a trance and turns him into a shaman! He invokes the primitiveness of men, painting and the painter. He covers his canvases, drawings and sculptures with raw colors. No blending or half tones: impact requires an essential relationship to the world. Drawing comes afterward and gives shape and coherence to the surface of the paper or the canvas. Everything clashes in Robert Combas s work. His genius reaches its peak in his Crucifix series representing the ultimate passion of the painter! The crosses are no less than used paintbrushes, and paint tubes have expired Everything seems to indicate that the painter sacrificed himself for the salvation of humanity. Robert Combas does not stop at a vision of the world in one piece. He feels the need to show and draw attention on every aspect of life: blood, sex, violence, war, death, god and men. Especially men! He is the cradle of chaos and life. Numerous philosophers and intellectuals like Michel Onfray have studied and abundantly commented Combas s work. Exhibitions held at the Grimaldi Forum of Monaco (2016), the Musée d art contemporain de Lyon (2012) or the Seoul Museum of Art (2006) confirm the worldwide interest for this major artist. For the first time, Robert Combas will show his most recent works in South Africa. TÊTE À PLEIN DE SIGNES ET PYRAMIDALE AU COU BIEN-SÛR Jean Vergès, 2017 CHEVEUX DES JAMAÎQUES Cheveux des Jamaïques, des frisés bourrés, bourrés, bourrés sont les chamailleries d un âne rayé d Afrique du SOAP.

PETIT DIABLE À RAISINS ET FLEURS. ENTOURAGE DE FEUILLES GORGONE DE RIRES DE JOIES Petit entortillement de petites têtes de Serpent dansa Rolando. Rolando danse serpents. Gorgone de rires de joies. TÊTE CROIX ET MONSIEUR TORTUEUX TÊTE PLEINE DE MOTS (detail)

Sans titre 2017, mixed media on paper mounted on canvas, 63 x 48 cm Sans titre 2017, mixed media on paper mounted on canvas, 62,5 x 47,5 cm

Installation view Michel Houellebecq Rester vivant, Palais de Tokyo Paris 2016. Photo Harald Gottschalk

SELECTED BIOGRAPHY Installation view Michel Houellebecq Rester vivant Palais de Tokyo, Paris 2016. Photo Harald Gottschalk 1957 Birth of Robert Combas in Lyon. 1977 Robert Combas, Ketty Brindel, Hervé and Buddy Di Rosa get together as adolescents with similar preoccupations: music, rock, punk, cartoon, graphic arts and humour. Combas learns the technique of engraving and creates the premises of Figuration libre. 1978 The material to paint is expensive. Combas uses all kinds of recycled material. Together with Ketty Brindel and Hervé Di Rosa, they form the musical group les Démodés. 1980 Combas settles in Paris with Hervé di Rosa, Ketty Brindel and Louis Jammes. Meets major dealers Bruno Bischofberger and Daniel Templon who both buy his work. 1981 First solo exhibition abroad at galerie Eva Keppel, Düsseldorf / galerie Swart, Amsterdam. First article on the artist in the newspaper Libération: Too poor to buy a canvas. Ateliers 81/82, ARC-Museum of modern art, ville de Paris. Let s go, children of Picasso, article written in L Express where Robert Combas is designated as the leader of Figuration libre. 1982 First solo show in Paris, galerie Yvon Lambert with whom Combas starts an intense and stimulating collaboration. 1983 Exhibition Blanchard, Boisrond, Combas, Di Rosa, Groninger Museum, Groningen, Holland. First solo show in New York at Leo Castelli Gallery. 1984 Robert Combas gets a real style with very complex works where a thick black line circles the colors. 5/5: Figuration libre France/USA, with young french painters (Blanchard, Boisrond, Combas, Di Rosa, Jammes) and americans (Basquiat, Crash, Haring et Scharf). Coincidence or not, a few months later, Keith Haring starts to paint pink figures looking alike the ones of Combas. 1985 Retrospective at Museum Abbaye Sainte-Croix, Sables d Olonne (France)/ Gemeentemuseum, Helmond (Holland)/ Museum of Art and Industry in Saint-Etienne (France). 1986 Second personal exhibition at Leo Castelli gallery, New York. 1987 Personal exhibition, CAPC, Bordeaux (France)/ Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (Holland). Participates in L Époque, la mode, la morale, la passion, National Museum of modern art, Centre Pompidou, Paris. Meets Geneviève Boteilla who becomes his muse and girlfriend. The works of Combas being like pages of an intimate diary, the theme of love is more and more present in the work. 1989 Robert Combas realizes all the visual advertising for the exhibition Nos années 80, Cartier Foundation. He becomes an emblematic figure of the last 10 years of creation. First exhibition in Korea, gallery Blue, Seoul. 1990 Exhibition at Wolf Schulz Gallery, San Francisco. Combas-Toulouse-Lautrec, Museum Toulouse-Lautrec, Albi (France)/ Museum in Blois/ Taipei Fine Arts Museum,Taïwan. 1993 Du simple et du double, Museum of modern art, Paris. 2000 Marilyn Combas, simultaniously in 3 galeries, Combas appropriates himself the absolute iconic figure of femininity: Marilyn Monroe, working directly on Warhol serigraphs. 2002 Combas settles his studio in Ivry-sur-Seine, first time he owns a place. 2003 One Combas season, Combas exhibits in 8 different places in Provence big size paintings on the theme of Middle Ages, King René and mountain Sainte-Victoire (painted by Cézanne). 2005 The monumental Goddess Isis-Venus is presented in Mots d oreille, exhibition in parallel of the Venice Biennal, in the Magazzini del Sale. Big Bang, National Museum of modern art, Centre Georges-Pompidou, Paris. 2006 Savoir-Faire, major itinerant retrospective in South Korea. 2007 Cinéphage à gogo, Art Centre La Malmaison, Cannes (during the Cannes Festival) presents a great diversity of works on the theme of movies. 2008 Qu es Aco? Vincent Van Gogh Foundation, Arles. 2009 Le Frimeur flamboyant, Maison européenne of photography, Paris, gives Combas the opportunity of giving his answer of painter to photography. 2010 Combas meets Lucas Mancione with whom he starts a major work of musical creation. 2011 They form a group : the Sans Pattes. They perform in the frame of the exhibition Psychedelic Continents organized by the French Cultural Institute, Pointe-Noire, Congo. 2012 Greatest Hits, we start by the beginning and end by the end, Retrospective, Museum of contemporary art, Lyon (France). Major event lived by Combas as an apotheosis, where he occupies 3000 square meters of the museum to express his historical course and his experimental work. Combas settles his painting and musical studio in the museum where he lives during 3 months. 2014 Maurice j arrive! (Maurice I arrive!), French Institute, Maurice Island. Exhibition, musical concert by the Sans Pattes and conference Trance is knowledge, a shaman named Combas by the famous French philosopher Michel Onfray. 2015 Bonjour la France, Seongnam Art Center, Korea / Goyang Cultural Foundation. Artistes à la Une pour la Liberté, (Artists featured for Freedom), Palais de Tokyo, Paris. A presentation of the most famous first pages of daily newspapers revisited by 40 artists. 2016/17 Robert Combas, 80s and 90s, Retrospective at the Grimaldi Forum, Monaco. The Combas belonging to Yvon Lambert, Collection Lambert, Avignon.

CAPE TOWN ART FAIR BOOTH D5 - FEB. 2017 Cape Town International Convention Centre Convention Square - 1 Lower Long St Cape Town - South AFrica Cover : TÊTE PLEINE DE MOTS (detail) Below : Installation view Michel Houellebecq Rester vivant, Palais de Tokyo, Paris 2016. Photo Harald Gottschalk All pictures Atelier Robert Combas www.carolinesmulders.com By appointment: 4, rue Martel 75010 Paris Mobile : +33 (0) 6 09 02 66 31 Mail : caroline.ilovemyjob@gmail.com