Georges Rohner , Still Life With Oranges, Circa 1970

Georges ROHNER
(Paris, 1913 - Lannion, 2000)
Nature morte aux tissus et aux oranges
Oil on canvas
H. 54cm; L. 65cm
Signed lower left

Georges Rohner was born in Paris in 1913, at a time when painting was already oscillating between tradition and modernity, and turned to painting as a teenager. In 1929, he entered the École des Beaux-Arts de Paris and joined Lucien Simon's studio. There, he developed a solid technical training alongside young artists such as Robert Humblot and Pierre Tal-Coat.

In the 1930s, when the avant-garde dominated the art scene, Rohner joined the Forces Nouvelles group, which advocated a return to figuration and rigorous drawing. Faithful to this orientation, he gradually asserted a demanding figurative work, attentive to the presence of reality without yielding to academicism.

From the 1950s onwards, his work asserted itself with great coherence. Rohner explores nature, bodies and everyday objects. His still lifes bear witness to a meditative attention to light, time and matter.

Professor at the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs from 1962, he was elected to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1968, in the Ingres chair.

Throughout his career, he exhibited in France and abroad, notably in Paris, New York, Venice and Brussels. In 1987, a major retrospective at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Quimper consecrated the importance of his career.

His works are today held in numerous public collections, including the Musée d'Art Moderne in Paris, the Musée de Beauvais, the Musée des années 30 in Boulogne-Billancourt...