François Baron-Renouard was born on 19 April 1918 in Vitré (Ille-et-Vilaine), figurative first and then abstract-lyrical. Grandson of the painter Paul Renouard, he studied at the Ecole Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. During the Second World War, he was an officer in aviation, which will have a lasting impact on his work. Since 1946, he participates in almost all the Parisian exhibitions as well as many collective exhibitions in France and abroad. Holder of numerous awards and distinctions, since 1949, he presents his solo exhibitions in Paris, Geneva, Munich, London, New York, Mexico, Tokyo; Etc. In 1968, he made tapestry cartoons, stained glass windows and mosaics.
He began his artistic career by painting figurative works with traditional subjects: still lifes, landscapes and compositions with characters. He then definitively evolves towards the absence of figuration and his work is distinguished by a lyrical gesture reinforced by an expressive chromaticism on agglomerated and glued supports.
His works appear in many museums of the world, in Beirut, Los Angeles, Paris, Sofia, Tokyo ...
In an interview with Philippe de Brisoult, reproduced on the site devoted to the artist, the question: What do you paint? He answers: I find branches of trees, brambles, wrecks on the beaches, I also find pieces of trunks which, later, will inspire me. I'm doing macro-photography. Clichés (macro-photo) fit into my painting, not by copying them, but after my mind has thought and worked on them. I record what I see as the landscapes seen from the plane. Those of the war of course and those that I made all along my life like these many snapshots above Alaska at ten kilometers of altitude. And several years later in my paintings, I find some of these landscapes, a lake, a river, a valley. I drew estuaries, the inland sea. Sometimes I am asked what it means. So, I answer nature. In reality what I'm painting is space, time, music, poetry, wind ...
Testimony of François Baron-Renouard Extract from the video module of the Audiovisual Encyclopedia of Contemporary Art (1997) Director: Claude Guibert
Excerpt from the interview of François Baron-Renouard
Www.baronrenouard.com
Sources: Dictionary of Painters Sculptors Draftsmen and Engravers by E. Benezit, Gründ, 1999

Selection of works on request