In 1981, Robert Combas—who was only 24 years old at the time—instantaneously achieved great fame. As impertinent as his paintings, he declared himself the leader of figuration libre (free figuration) in France. Seven years later, the expression “figuration libre” is old hat. Fluxus artist Ben Vautrier coined the term after seeing an early showing of Robert Combas’ and Hervé di Rosa’s work. Soon, two other very young artists—Rémi Blanchard and Francois Boisrond—became associated with the movement. Sharing the same taste for spontaneous painting, taking their inspiration from comic strips rather

Eugène Leroy, now 78 years old, was until recently practically unknown as a painter. A native of northern France, where he still lives, Leroy has quietly realized a considerable body of work. In spite of more than 20 one-person shows—two of which were in Paris at the Galerie Claude Bernard in 1961 and 1963—Leroy had to wait until the early ’80s to capture critical attention from both the institutions and the market. This traveling retrospective, which comprised 80 paintings, spectacularly confirmed Leroy’s new-found status as a major painter and should go far in establishing him as such.

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