Roger Bezombes

'Blue Fish', Musee National d'Art Moderne, Grand Prix de Rome, Salon d'Automne

Roger Bezombes (1913 - 1994) was a French painter, sculptor, medallist and designer. He studied in Paris at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts, and was much influenced by his friendship with Maurice Denis. He worked principally as a painter, adopting the saturated colours of Henri Matisse in landscapes and figure studies often based on observation of 'exotic' cultures, notably Mediterranean and North African. In the mid-1960s a new rawness emerged in his work, derived from 'primitive' examples and new materials associated with his experiments in other media. He executed tapestry designs for Aubusson, 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.