Paul Hémery (1921-2006) - Composition (with Van Thienen frame)

This top piece by the renowned French artist Paul Hémery (1921–2006), a key figure of the artists' association Groupe de Roubaix, concerns an abstract composition from 1961. This oil painting is sold with the high-quality, authentic frame by Van Thienen.

Hémery was known for his powerful, semi-abstract compositions. In them he often combined thick, dark structural lines with a restrained color palette of mainly ochre, yellow, and whites. The vertical forms in this particular work evoke stylized industrial elements, poles, or an abstract cityscape against a light background.

The year 1961 is crucial in Paul Hémery's career. In that year, his art friend and gallery owner Léon Renar opened his very first solo exhibition specifically for Hémery's new work.

The painting is fitted with a valuable, richly decorated gold-colored Baroque frame by Van Thienen (Brussels). This absolute top framer specializes in high-quality, artisanal, and often hand-colored wooden frames for modern art.

- Artist: Paul Hémery (1921, Tourcoing – 2006, Lille)
- Title: Composition
- Medium: Oil on panel
- Style: abstract
- Year: 1961
- Dimensions: 50 x 60 cm (frameless); 65 x 74 cm (with frame)
- Sold with a quality Van Thienen frame

Paul Hémery (1921–2006) was a prominent French painter and one of the key figures of post-war Groupe de Roubaix. His oeuvre is characterized by an ongoing artistic dialogue between abstraction and figuration, with light, texture, and color at its core. Although he long led a discreet and relatively unknown existence for the general public, he left a substantial and influential footprint in the modern art of northern France.

Paul Hémery was born in Tourcoing (Northern France) in 1921. His youth was partly spent near Bruges, where his first fascination with Flemish light and nature began.

He studied the light effects and compositions of Johannes Vermeer, William Turner, and Vincent van Gogh (especially his thick paint layers and impasto technique). Cubism helped him with the geometric construction of his canvases. Later he was deeply influenced by the texture and color fields of Nicolas de Staël and the Nouvelle École de Paris.

In the 1970s he became fascinated by the structures of minerals, and his later abstract, rhythmic compositions were directly influenced by his love of jazz music.

Together with his bosom friend Michel Delporte, the world-renowned sculptor Eugène Dodeigne, and painters such as Eugène Leroy, Arthur Van Hecke, and Jacky Dodin, he formed the hard core of the artists' association Groupe de Roubaix.

The Groupe de Roubaix introduced contemporary and abstract art to the traditional textile region around Roubaix and Tourcoing.

In 1970 he painted the monumental artwork of 100 m² titled La Naissance de la lumière (The Birth of Light). This gigantic work hangs today in the public domain, at the Grand-Place metro station in Roubaix.

He helped to seed the famous artistic center Le Septentrion (La Ferme des Marguerites) on the estate of the textile family Prouvost in Bondues.

Hémery exhibited frequently in France and Belgium during his life. From 1949 to 1956 he regularly exhibited at the Salon des Artistes Roubaisiens. In 1972 he presented his mineral-inspired abstract works at the prestigious Galerie Henri Bénézit in Paris.

In the summer of 2024 the leading museum La Piscine in Roubaix honored the artist with an extensive retrospective: Paul Hémery (1921-2006): La lumière en liberté. This also included an official, extensive monograph about his life.