Philippe Artias was born in 1912 in the town of Feurs (France). He started painting in 1930, at a time when Picasso was abandoning cubism for a more figurative approach.
In 1948 Artias felt the need to meet the Spanish genius and moved to Vallauris where Picasso was living. They became friends and were study partners for five years.
Although Picasso was an important source of inspiration for Artias, the latter nonetheless developed his own personal interpretation of futurism, especially regarding the value of movement.As our gallery shows, Artias has gone through several painting cycles.
Among the works he produced are the "Geotema" series, the "New York" series, and the great work of the "Royal family", started in 1963, a tribute to Goya and his "Family of Carlos IV".
Since the beginning of the 1980, Artias has spent long periods in Italy, where several other series were born: "Rome", "Venice", and "Passeggio" among others.
In 1997 Artias was awarded by the French Government the most important civil distinction, the "Légion d'Honneur".                

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From 1950 through 1973 Artias participated in the "Salon de Mai".
In 1964 he won first prize for painting at the Avignon Festival. In the following years, his paintings were exhibited in Stockholm (Sweden), Neuchâtel (Switzerland) and in several venues in Japan.
Artias presented his work in an exhibition which toured fourteen US cities, after which he also had exhibits in Basel and Geneva (Switzerland), London (UK), Los Angeles (USA) and Paris (France).
In 1996 he was invited by UNESCO to take part in an important exhibition which brought together the works of one hundred artists from all over the world.
In 2000, he was the first contemporary artist to display his works in China at the national museum of Chinese art in Beijing.
Other works by Artias can be found in the museums of Abidjan (Côte d'Ivoire), Avignon, Dunkerque and Paris (France), Ferrara (Italy), Mexico City (Mexico), Neuchâtel (Switzerland), and in Geneva's Petit Palais, Saint Etienne (France), São Paulo (Brazil), Tehran (Iran), Beijing.
Artias passed away in 2002 in Numana,Italy.

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