Description
A pictorial practice
The first known works of Robert COMBAS date from 1977. Student at the Regional School of Fine Arts in Montpellier since 1975, he thwarts the Parisian artistic rules taught by his teachers, and it is in complete freedomthat he lays the foundations for a personal pictorial practice that stands out from the productions of the time. This young artist is not afraid to face figuration, which is more, a type of figuration that is both expressive and narrative. At each stage of his journey, the effectiveness of Robert COMBAS’s works is due to his instinct and his environment. Comics, illustrated books for schoolchildren, record covers, advertising posters and rock music fueled his early works. Later, he studied the works of Dubuffet and Chaissac. He analyzes with discernment the paintings of Picasso, Matisse, Rouault, Hockney and Toulouse-Lautrec. Without complex, COMBAS knows what it wants with as only objective the success, and the recognition of an artistic medium in search of novelty, of which it refuses to respect the standards.
At the beginning of the 80s, the enthusiasm for the painter is felt from his first manifestations. However, the public appearance of his works puts criticism to the test. The unprecedented style combined with the insolent force of a provocative painting – which is still only at its beginnings – confuse many spectators because the singularity of his creation greatly shakes up habits. The intensity of Robert COMBAS’s works is such that they are undoubtedly the only ones to offer an alternative to the practices of the time.
Years of 80’s
Robert COMBAS chooses painting as a privileged means of expression. His sources of inspiration, linked to an urban and popular subculture, immediately stem from chaotic news. A decade of violence inspires the artist: the Chernobyl disaster, the second oil shock, the Wall Street stock market crash, the AIDS virus… At the same time, Robert COMBAS, on the benches of the School of Fine Arts of Montpellier, never ceases to resume scenes of battles. The international conflicts which appear on the television screens, bring their share of deaths, imprisonments, exoduses and massacres. Faced with this period of anguish and intolerance, Robert COMBAS chooses the tone of derision as a subjective release.
In the field of creation, a real cultural mix is asserted with the arrival of the Punk revolution and the infatuation of young people for rock, in which Robert COMBAS fully participates. Favoring the right and the pleasure of painting – sticking to the reality of the world against a background of rock music – violence, sex and drugs will therefore inspire the artists. At that time, the American graffiti artists from the East Village, Jean-Michel Basquiat and Keith Haring, began to make a name for themselves on the art scene.
“I thought that one day Rock & Roll would enter the galleries: this is what happened with the Free Figuration and the American graffiti artists of the East Village.”
– Eric FABRE, art dealer – 20th century.
Emergence of a style, Free Figuration
The Free Figuration is the product of painters who have witnessed a time that they are trying to illustrate. By asserting their belonging to the culture of their time – second-class television soap operas, comics, rock concerts, tags and graffiti – they claim as sources of inspiration all forms of subcultures considered trivial and vulgar. Combas, Boisrond, the Di Rosa brothers, Louis Jammes as well as the American artists Jean-Michel Basquiat, Keith Haring and Kenny Scharf have in common their arrogant youth and the effervescence of a time when art and music mingle with the street.
“Free Figuration is not reduced to a series of summary drawings executed quickly. It is a proposal which aims to institute a language in direct contact with the city, a language in which the diversity of generations and races would blend. . A kind of universal slang understandable by all. “
– Otto HAHN, Figuration libre – 1984.
The work of the layout and the horror of the void
Charged with black, with a quick stroke of a pencil, a prodigious speed seems to define each of the components of this engraving – background and forms combined. COMBAS obsessively saturates space, so unbearable is the horror of emptiness. Whether it is abstract signs or figures, it covers the entire surface, down to the ends.
“I’m really freaking out wondering if the canvas will be okay, until I fill it in.”
– Robert COMBAS, Interview with D. Davvetas.
The relatively simple layout of his early works – with a uniform background, no character and modest geometric outlines – was quickly followed by an excessive overload of forms and figures that entangled and twisted in an inextricable way. In a swarm of decorative motifs and uncertain signs, we can nevertheless distinguish the subject of this work: the cellist.
On this engraving, COMBAS defies all standards. It cancels out the depth of field effect, even if it respects the relationship that the background – however heavy it may be – maintains with the form. It reduces to nothing any realistic scale of size, as for the size of the characters mixed with the superimposed objects. To the entanglement of the lines of the figures, signs and characters, there is added an apparent disorder in the face of the abundance of everything that the artist offers to the gaze.
COMBAS has a habit of throwing himself on his creations like a torrero in the arena. This graphic impulse takes hold of everything, the subject invades the entire medium – imposing a raw, immediate and wild relationship – between himself, his creation and the viewer.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.