René Genis (1922 - 2004) Seascape Greece - The Island Of Crete Oil On Canvas 81x54 Cm

René GENIS ( 1922 - 2004) Seascape in Greece - the island of Crete Oil on canvas size 81 x 54 cm 


Style and work

René Genis belongs to the School of Poetic Reality with Christian Caillard, Jules Cavaillès, Raymond Legueult, Roger Limouse, Roland Oudot, André Planson, etc., and the Swiss post-impressionist painter Andry admits to having been influenced by him.

A specialist in still life and landscape, his art shows an ease and rigour of drawing, supported by the talent of the colourist who asserts himself with delicacy and elegance. The density of the contrasts is served by a certain simplification of the forms and a flattening of the pure colours where the light bursts (Evening Light, Serifos, Greece or The Cat in the Alley, Serifos, Greece). This apparent simplicity is not without a research that is revealed in particular in the still lifes brightened up by tapestries, mosaics or ceramics (The Jaspered Pitcher - 1973, The Bowls - 2000), floral representations (Umbels in a Chinese Vase - 2000 or Bouquet and Seashells - 1990) or even a simple wall in a landscape (Evening Light, Bandol, Provence)

René Genis, born on 26 January 1922 in Hué (Vietnam), and died on 25 February 2004 in Paris, was a French painter and engraver.
After returning to France from Indochina in 1931, René Genis' family settled first in the Gironde, in Blaye and then in Arcachon, and finally in Paris in 1937.

Enrolled at the École des arts appliqués in Paris, Genis fled with his family to Bordeaux in 1940 where he attended the École des beaux-arts. Back in Paris, he entered the National School of Decorative Arts where he met André Brasilier, Bernard Cathelin, Paul Guiramand and Guy Bardone. His teachers were Jules Cavaillès, François Desnoyer and Maurice Brianchon.

In 1950, he obtained the first diploma in decorative painting (Albert Marquet class) in the workshop of Marcel Gromaire (1892-1961). He assisted Jean Lurçat for some time in the creation of his tapestry cartoons.

From this time onwards, René Genis presented his paintings at the Salon de la Jeune Peinture, and was awarded the prize in 1960. For some forty years, he regularly exhibited at the Salon Comparaisons in Maurice Boitel's group. He was also a member of the Société des peintres-graveurs français.

A member of the Salon d'Automne, Genis soon acquired international renown and his paintings were exhibited in galleries in New York, Tokyo, Essen, Lausanne, Geneva and Taipei, and many museums, both French and foreign, now own his works.

René Genis was influenced by the group of poetic reality with Christian Caillard, Jules Cavaillès, Raymond Legueult, Roger Limouse, Roland Oudot, André Planson, etc. The Swiss painter Andry admits to having been influenced by him.

A specialist in still life and landscape, his art shows an ease and rigour of drawing, supported by the talent of the colourist who asserts himself with delicacy and elegance. The density of the contrasts is served by a certain simplification of the forms and a flattening of the pure colours where the light bursts (Evening Light, Serifos, Greece or The Cat in the Alley, Serifos, Greece).

This apparent simplicity is not without a research that is revealed in particular in the still lifes brightened up by tapestries, mosaics or ceramics (The Jaspered Pitcher, 1973; The Bowls, 2000), floral representations (Umbelles au vase chinois, 2000; Bouquet et coquillages, 1990) or even a simple wall in a landscape (Lumière du soir, Bandol, Provence)
In museums:
In France
Museums of Aix-en-Provence, Baux-de-Provence, Besançon, Bordeaux, Lyon and the city of Paris;
Saint-Claude (Jura), Musée de l'Abbaye: Since November 2008, a new museum in Saint-Claude has benefited from the joint donation he made with his lifelong friend Guy Bardone of the collection of figurative works he owned. These works include a large number of his paintings as well as a large number of drawings1 ;
Gray (Haute-Saône), Baron-Martin Museum: The Tugboat, oil on canvas.


Abroad
Jakarta (Indonesia), Oran (Algeria), Neuchâtel (Switzerland), Sofia (Bulgaria), Tokyo (Yamagata Museum).

Works :

Roger Vercel, Remorques, Les Bibliophiles de France, 1957
Edouard Peisson, Parti de Liverpool, Les Médecins Bibliophiles, 1961
Jean Giraudoux, Aventures de Jérôme Bardini, Les Amis Bibliophiles, 1967
L'atelier, album of original lithographs by Paul Aïzpiri, Guy Bardone, André Brasilier, Bernard Buffet, André Cottavoz, René Genis, Paul Guiramand, Jean Jansem, André Minaux, Gravure Matignon, 1970

Bibliography:

Jean Bouret, Monographie Genis, Neuchâtel, Éditions Ides et Calendes.
J. M. Nectoux, Les natures mortes de Genis, Neuchâtel, Éditions Ides et Calendes.
Lydia Harambourg, L'École de Paris, 1945-1965, Éditions Ides et Calendes.
René Genis: Art Vision in Paris, Kyoto Shoin (Japan).
René Genis: Catalogue 1999, preface by Lydia Harambourg, Paris, Galerie 26.
Jean-Charles Gauthier, René Genis, [catalogue of the retrospective in Bergerac (Dordogne) in 2001].
"60 paintings by a Bordeaux master sold at auction in the Jura", Sud-Ouest, 24 June 2016 (read online [archive], accessed 24 June 2016)


History of the painting: Original oil on canvas by the artist, exhibited and certainly sold to the former owner by the Tamenaga gallery 18 avenue Matignon Paris 75008 (exhibition label on the back of the painting visible in photograph 2) purchased by our gallery after succession.