Paul Hémery, 1921-2006 : La Lumière En Liberté

Exhibition at the Musée La Piscine, Roubaix, 22 June - 1 September 2024,

Paul Hémery was one of the leading artists of the Groupe de Roubaix, an informal group of friends, painters and sculptors who began their careers at the Salon des artistes roubaisiens and in the city's galleries. Together, these artists awakened the north of France to contemporary art in the years following the Second World War. Sensitive to the masters of the Flemish and Dutch schools, but equally receptive to the research of the Nouvelle École de Paris, the painter exhibited for the first time in 1952. As ebullient in temperament as he was diligent and conscientious in his work, he left behind a body of work somewhere between tradition and modernity, with a wealth of inspiration.

Over time, the La Piscine museum has assembled́ a reference collection thanks tò various donations, but above all to the bequest granted́ by his friend the painter Michel Delporte in 2001, and to the generosity of the artist himself in 2000 and 2002. This exhibition catalogue offers a chance to rediscover the 'zigzag painter' he said he was, a figure as essential as he was little-known in the post-war northern artistic landscape.