“The act of painting is a solitary one and one should never fear solitude if one wants to paint. Painting is not a job: it is a path that can only be followed in solitude.” - François Aubrun
In his awareness of this solitude, François Aubrun painted without cease for sixty long years until the end of his life in 2009. From the studio he installed in the church of Saint-Joseph at Le Tholonet, next door to Cézanne's studio and overlooking Mont Sainte-Victoire, he expressed the inexpressible: the transparency of the morning mist “when in the morning it is more heavy than the sky above, and throughout the day all turns around until it is the sky that is heavier.” His art is profoundly Naturalist. He searched the ever-changing sky for its “liquidity”—by which he meant “the feminine, the river, the Seine, the mists on Mont Sainte-Victoire…” in order to evoke all its light, and all its silence.
François Aubrun was born at Boulogne-Billancourt on the 29th of October, 1934. He studied painting at the Section d'Or of the Academy of Paris under the tutelage of the painter Jean Souverbie. It was while travelling around France with his grandfather at the age of fifteen that he first discovered Aix-en-Provence; two years later, he studied sculpture there with Paul-Françoise Niclausse, and in 1951 stayed, drew and painted in the region. In 1953, he entered the preparatory class at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, where he studied painting, and from 1954 to 1961 he took courses in monumental art and lithography.
In 1956, he married Martine Bassot, who would give birth to their six daughters, Caroline, Isabelle, Marie-Pascale, Dorothée, Delphine and Segolène. He exhibited his paintings for the first time in 1957 in Paris. In 1960, he took up residence at the estate of Saint Joseph along with his wife, and continued to work there until his death.
He was made a citizen of Honour of the city of Aix-en-Provence in 2007. He taught painting at Luminy, at the University of Marseilles, and then at the National School of Decorative Arts of Nice. He was appointed Director of the École des Beaux-Arts of Toulon from 1974 to 1980, then held tenure as professor of painting at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris until 1992. Wherever he went, he drew and he painted: in Greece in 1966; in Egypt in 1982; in the Bay of the Somme in 2001. He exhibited regularly in France and abroad, notably in the United States, Canada, Germany, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy and Spain. François Aubrun died in Paris on the 5th of February, 2009.
Galerie de Varenne, Paris, France, 1957
Galerie Dauphine, Paris, France, 1959
Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France, 1962
Galerie Terre d’Ocre, Toulouse, France, 1965
Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France, 1965
Galerie 9, Paris, France, 1965
Galerie des Beaux-Arts, Paris, France, 1967
Galerie 9, Paris, France, 1967
Galerie Le Point, Auxerre, France, 1967
Galerie du Vieux Cagnes, Haut-de-Cagnes, France, 1968
Groupe Animation d’une Cité, Lons-le-Saunier, France, 1968
Canal de Provence, Aix-en-Provence, France, 1968
Galerie Suzanne de Coninck, Paris, France, 1968
Galerie 7, Paris, France, 1969
Foyer du Vieux Colombier, Paris, France, 1969
Galerie Suzanne de Coninck, Paris, France, 1970
Galerie H.B., Aix-les-Bains, France, 1970
Galerie du Guet, Aix-en-Provence, France, 1971
Galerie Henry Meyer, Lausanne, Switzerland, 1971
Galerie Henry Meyer, Lausanne, Switzerland, 1972
Palais des Congrès, Aix-en-Provence, France, 1972
Galerie de La Licorne, Martel, Neuchâtel, Switzerland, 1972
Galerie Henry Meyer, Lausanne, Switzerland, 1973
Galerie La Porte de Jade, Brussels, Belgium, 1973
Galerie La Prévôté, Aix-en-Provence, France, 1975
Galerie des Maîtres Contemporains, Aix-en-Provence, France, 1975
Galerie des Maîtres Contemporains, Aix-en-Provence, France, 1976
La Galerie, Nîmes, France, 1976
La Galerie, Nîmes, France, 1977
Le Couvent Royal, Saint-Maximin, France, 1977
Galerie Eupalinos, Clermont-Ferrand, France, 1977
Palais de la Berbie, Albi, France, 1978
Galerie La Prévôté, Aix-en-Provence, France, 1979
Galerie Artax, Paris, France, 1979
Salle Carnot, Aix-en-Provence, France, 1979
La S.F.I.G.H. Architecture, Paris, France, 1981
Galerie Gilles Corbeil, Montréal, Canada, 1983
Galerie Baudinet, New York, 1983
Galerie Yannick Bideau, Paris, France, 1984
Galerie Baudinet, New York, 1985
Musée Granet, Aix-en-Provence, France, 1985
Galerie Manuel, Aix-en-Provence, France, 1986
German-French Cultural Institute of Tübingen, Germany, 1987
Musée Théodor-Haering-Haus, Tübingen, Germany, 1987
Galerie Jean-Claude Riedel, Paris, France, 1987
Galerie Jean-Claude Riedel, Paris, France, 1989
Galerie Jean-Claude Riedel, Paris, France, 1990
1991 Sarina Tang Fine Art, New York, 1991
Galerie Jean-Claude Riedel, Paris, France, 1992
Galerie Jean-Claude Riedel, Paris, France, 1993
Galerie Jean-Claude Riedel, Paris, France, 1995
Galerie L'Embarcadère, Lyon, France, 1996
Monasterio de Veruela, Zaragoza, Spain, 1997
Galerie L'Embarcadère, Lyon, France, 1997
Galerie Jean-Claude Riedel, Paris, France, 1997
Galerie Jean-Claude Riedel, Paris, France, 1999
Galerie Jean-Claude Riedel, Paris, France, 2001
Galerie L'Embarcadère, Lyon, France, 2001
Galerie Han Art, Montréal, Canada, 2001
Galerie Rouge, Morges, Switzerland, 2002
Galerie Ô Quai des Arts, Vevey, Switzerland, 2004
Galerie Nabokov, Paris, 2005
Galerie Ô Quai des Arts, Vevey, Switzerland, 2005
Chapelle Saint-Joseph, Le Tholonet, France, 2006
Galerie Ô Quai des Arts, Vevey, Switzerland, 2007
La Maison Guerlain, Paris, France, 2008
Galerie Ô Quai des Arts, Vevey, Switzerland, 2009
Galerie Nabokov, Paris, France, 2009
Topography of Art, Paris, France, 2012
Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, France, 2015
Domaine de Kerguéhennec, Bignan, France, 2015
Grand Trouble exhibition, Halle Saint Pierre, Paris, France, 2017
Aubrun: L'absolue peinture, Musée Angladon, Avignon, France, 2019
Dessin politique, Dessin poétique, Musée Jenisch, Vevey, Switzerland, 2019
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