PAUL HEMERY 1921/2006

SUPERB AND DYNAMIC COMPOSITION BY THIS VERY FINE ARTIST.
OIL ON CANVAS 130X98CM DATEE69..
Although born in Tourcoing, Paul Hémery was one of the leading figures of the Groupe de Roubaix, an informal gathering of friends, painters and sculptors who began their artistic careers at the Salon des Artistes Roubaisiens and in the city's galleries. Together, they awakened the Nord-Pas-de-Calais region to contemporary art in the years following the Second World War.
It was in Bruges, at a very early age, that Paul Hémery tried his hand at painting, which he began to practice seriously and
after the war, exhibiting his work at the Salon des Artistes Roubaisiens as early as 1949. In 1953, he exhibited at the Galerie Louis Parenthou with Jean-Robert Debock, Jean Roulland and Michel Delporte, forging a close friendship with the latter. In 1954, he took part in the Douze peintres exhibition at Galerie Dujardin, the group's first show. In 1955, his move to Mouvaux brought him closer to his elders, painters René Jacob and Maurice Maes, who were keen to help the younger generation of artists. In the same year, the Musée de Tourcoing offered its gallery space to him and Delporte, while the Galerie Dujardin presented his work in 1956. Gallery owner Léon Renar, whom Paul Hémery had encouraged to open a gallery, championed the painter's work in several solo shows in 1961, 1962, 1964 and 1966.
He was supported at this time by textile industrialist and collector Philippe Leclercq, who was later joined by Anne and Albert Prouvost, head of Peignage Amédée Prouvost in Roubaix, who became true patrons of the artist's work. They offered him a studio in the Ferme des Marguerites, located on their estate, and Hémery soon presented them with the idea of opening an exhibition space there: Septentrion, the Bondues-Marcq art center, was inaugurated some time later and would host numerous exhibitions. In 1970, he was commissioned by his patrons to paint and install a 100 m2 monumental decoration, La Naissance de la lumière, in the Peignage workshops. It was acquired in 1997 by the city of Roubaix after the closure of Le Peignage, and reinstalled in the Grand-Place metro station, which was about to open. The artist left his previous job as a police officer in Tourcoing to devote himself to painting. Fascinated by the mineral collection assembled by the Prouvosts, he drew inspiration from it to create abstract canvases. This marked the beginning of his mineral period, which he presented at the Henri Bénézit gallery in Paris in 1972. The rest of his career was marked by a to-and-fro between figuration and abstraction, moving from pastels to twilight visions, and later back to oils in colorful compositions set to the rhythm of jazz.

The artist will benefit from a major retrospective exhibition at the MUSEE LA PISCINE IN ROUBAIX FROM JUNE 22 TO SEPTEMBER 1, 2024.


Over the years, La Piscine has built up a reference collection thanks to various donations, but above all the bequest made by its friend the painter Michel Delporte in 2001, and the generosity of the artist himself in 2000 and 2002. In this way, the museum aims to rediscover a figure who is as essential as he is little-known in the post-war artistic landscape of northern France.
Curated by Germain Hirselj, art historian.

Ref: 55T01S9VVR