Contemporary Art
www.henribaviera.com

A native of Saint Paul de Vence, he currently works and lives in Lorgues (Var). He started studying very early at the Ecole Trachel in Nice, where he studied painting, drawing, engraving for three years.
Then in the 50's he returned to St. Paul where he settled down in order to develop his painting and engraving, under the eyes of artists as Borsi, Celli and many others.

From 1960 to 1963, he spent several years in Paris, attended most of the academies of painting as well as the Calevaert-Brun workshop where he improved his technique and his engraving knowledge.
He went back to St Paul where he had his studio of engraving and painting and little by little moved away from the first representation of a mineral phase 1962-1966, then schematic 1968-1975, and then dreamy 1978-1987.
From 1988 on, he developed compositions of an abstraction at the same time refined, architectural and metaphysical. The 2000's sees the color and the texture asserting a new energy in a personal expression of the living world.

Since 1950, more than three hundred and fifty personal and collective exhibitions have been making his work known in France and abroad: USA, Canada, Japan, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Brazil, ... and by participating in the main International Contemporary Art Fairs: Paris, Basel, London, Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo, Ghent, Montreal, Bologna, Frankfurt, Geneva, Nice, Yokohama, Paris, etc... to which are added study stays and research travels in Europe, Canada, USA, South America, Japan.

Painting, his major activity, is accompanied by different practices: engraving, mosaic, stained glass, ceramics, polyester and sculpture.
In 1965, he began his new process of engraving: "polychrome relief".
He carried out works in public spaces: mosaic (Valbonne), murals (Théoule and Marseilles), fountain (Gardanne), ceramic panel (Mandelieu), polyester panel (Geneva).

Author of a "environnement pénétrable " for the French Television (ORTF) in 1968 used as a set for Michel Polnareff's television show, "Un jour à St Paul de Vence".
In 1986, he left Saint Paul and opened his new studio in Nice.
Since 1990 he goes often to Japan where he frequently exposes.
In 2001-2002, Japan Foundation gave him a research grant of four months in Japan, dedicated to the study of the traditional paper (washi) and its use in the contemporary engraving, due to his project to carry out "polichromie-relief" engravings without the use of a press.

Several artists' books were conceived from the meeting with his friends, poets such as Andre Verdet; Bernard Noël, Françoise Armengaud, Gilbert Casula, Jacques Kober, Bruno Mendonça, Claude Haza, Alain Freixe, Claude Gallot…

Then he completely settled down in Lorgues in the middle of the nature, where he pursues his work, insensitive to trends and to pre-established currents.

Source: www.henribaviera.com ...

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