1928 - 1991

The European

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Born in a great port city, habituee of a gondola/city, citizen of a corsair town, our herolike Ulysses was a great traveller . While still a young man, he visited Spain, Italy, Greece, Turkey, the Maghreb and the northern countries. Later, the Compagnie générale transatlantique would commission him to design decorative panels for the lounge of the liner 'France'. On board the liner, he at last discovered New York which he used as a springboard for his conquest of the States. Then back in Europe he resumed his 'vagabond' travels once more, sometimes with paint brush in hand. But Roux rarely worked 'sur le motif'. He preferred to store up impressions for his real work in the studio.

'Les Treize Europe' (1990), Vincent's last exhibition in Aix allowed him to revisit in his imagination some of his favourite cities - such as Berlin where the 'wall of shame' had just fallen. The works were like twelve giant postcards, open windows in the geometric abstration of the Vasarely Foundation. But the 'thirteenth Europe' would remain the most beloved: the land that stretches from the Montagne Sainte Victoire to Saint Tropez.

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Jean-Michel ROYER