Robert Combas

Born in Lyon in 1957, Robert Combas is one of the most recognized French painters of the late 20th century. After studying at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts de Montpellier, Combas quickly acquired a certain notoriety. Paradoxically, his first solo exhibitions took place abroad – Amsterdam and Düsseldorf – but the first retrospective devoted to the artist, in 1985, took place at the museum of the Abbaye Sainte-Croix des Sables-d’Olones.

Marked by a clear influence from comic strips, and more broadly from popular imagery and the world of rock, Robert Combas’ art is tinged with an almost ubiquitous irony and humorous touch, sometimes pushing the line to the grotesque. The boldness of his work is illustrated in the diversity of the genres and themes he tackles, ranging from classical and millennial portraits to the treatment of social and historical subjects, as well as a certain attraction for religion and esotericism from the late 1980s onwards.

As early as 1981, Robert Combas had in fact joined the Free Figuration movement – an expression invented by the artist Ben and whose first exhibition took place in a Parisian apartment the same year. He originally designated a few dozen artists officiating in the 1980s, to finally restrict himself to the group formed by four friends: Combas, François Boisrond, Hervé di Rosa and Rémi Blanchard. Although devoid of any common aesthetic program or dogmatic straitjacket, the “group of four” is nevertheless driven by a common aspiration: to bring art back to the public and to the concrete, to initiate a split with the hermetic and intellectual inflection that marked the 1970s – with minimal and conceptual art in mind – and, finally, to advocate a deliberate return to figuration. Despite obvious stylistic differences, the various members of Figuration libre will all take a new look at contemporary and popular culture, imagery, advertising or other images that feed their production, inspiring them with explosions of colour and staging of singular characters or objects.

A symbolic figure of contemporary French art, sometimes considered a veritable icon, Robert Combas occupies a prominent place in the art market, the results of which he regularly achieves at Aguttes are an eloquent illustration. Thanks to the dynamism of its experts and a keen interest in him, the contemporary art department at Aguttes regularly offers for sale the works so recognizable by this popular artist, which have become a classic at auctions.