René Brô (November 21, 1930 – December 6, 1986) was a French artist.
Life and work
René Brô was born in
Charenton outside Paris. After finishing his schooling in 1944 by the age of fourteen, he began study art at different art schools. Parallelly he supported himself as a commercial artist. In the late 1940s, he was a frequent visitor to
Musée de l'Homme
The Musée de l'Homme (; literally "Museum of Mankind" or "Museum of Humanity") is an anthropology museum in Paris, France. It was established in 1937 by Paul Rivet for the 1937 ''Exposition Internationale des Arts et Techniques dans la Vie Moder ...
and
Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is a national art museum in Paris, France, and one of the most famous museums in the world. It is located on the Rive Droite, Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement of Paris, 1st arron ...
. He was in particularly attracted to
primitive art
Tribal art is the visual arts and material culture of indigenous peoples. Also known as non-Western art or ethnographic art, or, controversially, primitive art, Dutton, Denis, Tribal Art'. In Michael Kelly (editor), '' Encyclopedia of Aesthetics' ...
and to the
art of ancient Egypt. Brô's works of this period – pottery, drawings and paintings – are close to the works of
Paul Klee
Paul Klee (; 18 December 1879 – 29 June 1940) was a Swiss-born German artist. His highly individual style was influenced by movements in art that included expressionism, cubism, and surrealism. Klee was a natural draftsman who experimented wi ...
or to that which
Jean Dubuffet
Jean Philippe Arthur Dubuffet (; 31 July 1901 – 12 May 1985) was a French Painting, painter and sculpture, sculptor of the School of Paris, École de Paris (School of Paris). His idealistic approach to aesthetics embraced so-called "low art" a ...
characterized as
art brut
Art Brut is an English indie rock band. Their debut album, '' Bang Bang Rock & Roll'', was released on 30 May 2005, with its follow up, ''It's a Bit Complicated'', released on 25 June 2007. Named after French painter Jean Dubuffet's definition ...
.
In 1949 René Brô was exhibiting for the first time, at a joint exhibition in Paris. Afterwards he hitchhiked to Italy. During this trip he got to know the Austrian painter
Hundertwasser
Friedrich Stowasser (15 December 1928 – 19 February 2000), better known by his pseudonym Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser (), was an Austrian visual artist and architect who also worked in the field of environmental protection ...
who was two years Bro’s senior and was on the move as well; they were to be lifelong friends. Soon after their return to France in 1950, they jointly grappled with
mural painting
A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage.
Word mural in art
The word ''mural'' is a Spani ...
on the walls of a pavilion of the family Dumage where Hundertwasser stayed in
Saint-Mandé
Saint-Mandé (; named for Saint Maudez) is a Communes of France, commune in the Val-de-Marne Departments of France, department in Île-de-France, in the high-end eastern inner suburbs of Paris, France. It is located from the Kilometre zero, cent ...
outside Paris. Many years later, when this building was to be torn down in 1964, the two murals were saved from the demolition. One of them, ''La pêche miraculeuse'' (The miraculous draught), is now in
KunstHausWien
The KunstHausWien is a museum in Vienna, designed by the artist Friedensreich Hundertwasser. This museum in the Landstraße district houses the world's only permanent exhibition of Hundertwasser's works, and also hosts regular temporary exhibiti ...
, Hundertwasser's own museum in
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
. The other wall, ''Paradis – Pays des hommes, oiseaux et navires'' (Paradise – Land of men, of trees, birds and ships) came to a synagogue on
Long Island
Long Island is a densely populated continental island in southeastern New York (state), New York state, extending into the Atlantic Ocean. It constitutes a significant share of the New York metropolitan area in both population and land are ...
, New York, where it was removed in 2008.
These two friends went separate ways and got married, Brô had children, and both were engaged in their own artistic projects, but they accompanied each other on trips throughout the years to
North Africa
North Africa (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...
,
Mexico
Mexico, officially the United Mexican States, is a country in North America. It is the northernmost country in Latin America, and borders the United States to the north, and Guatemala and Belize to the southeast; while having maritime boundar ...
,
India
India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
,
Nepal
Nepal, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Nepal, is a landlocked country in South Asia. It is mainly situated in the Himalayas, but also includes parts of the Indo-Gangetic Plain. It borders the Tibet Autonomous Region of China Ch ...
, and
Polynesia
Polynesia ( , ) is a subregion of Oceania, made up of more than 1,000 islands scattered over the central and southern Pacific Ocean. The indigenous people who inhabit the islands of Polynesia are called Polynesians. They have many things in ...
. In 1957 and for some years after they shared a studio in the old French village of Courgeron in the municipality of
Le Pin-au-Haras
Le Pin-au-Haras () is a Communes of France, commune in the Orne Departments of France, department in north-western France.
Geography
The commune is made up of the following collection of villages and hamlets, La Lune, La Gautellerie, Courgeron, ...
,
Lower Normandy
Lower Normandy (, ; ) is a former administrative region of France. On 1 January 2016, Lower and Upper Normandy merged becoming one region called Normandy.
Geography
The region included three departments, Calvados, Manche and Orne, that cover ...
, a location where Brô at least went on visiting until his death.
In 1954 Brô had his first one-man exhibition in Paris. In 1964, he was invited to represent France at the
Venice Biennial
The Venice Biennale ( ; ) is an international cultural exhibition hosted annually in Venice, Italy. There are two main components of the festival, known as the Art Biennale () and the Venice Biennale of Architecture, Architecture Biennale (), ...
. In 1968 he set up a studio in
Venice
Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...
, where he later worked for a decade.
He had many successful exhibitions around Europe and the world in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1984 he spent several months in
Tahiti
Tahiti (; Tahitian language, Tahitian , ; ) is the largest island of the Windward Islands (Society Islands), Windward group of the Society Islands in French Polynesia, an overseas collectivity of France. It is located in the central part of t ...
, where he had a show at the
Musée Gauguin. He returned two years later and then withdrew to his country house in the Norman Courgeron, dying at the age of 56.
Footnotes
External links
A French compilation of life and workKunstHausWien Museum Hundertwasser
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bro, Rene
1986 deaths
French artists
1930 births
People from Charenton-le-Pont