Roland Bierge bio

Roland Bierge’s art suggests more than it describes, in the balance between stable forms and ones that vanish in a dream or the imagination. We can connect his work to what is often called the Nouvelle Ecole de Paris. Bierge was born in 1922 in Boucau (Basses-Pyrénées). In 1936, he left his studies to join his father’s painting company. At the same time, he attended the evening courses of applied art at Bayonne where his professor soon took note of him. Soon he started to dream of becoming a painter. 

War and deportation

With the onset of the war, Bierge worked as a self-taught artist. He exhibited several times with a group of painters from Biarritz (I Saltimbanchi). He was deported to Germany and managed to escape and hide on a farm in the Landes until the Liberation.

Bierge returned to his father’s company in 1945. 

Bierge moved to Paris

In 1946, he moved to Paris.

He was hired as a decorator at the Comédie française. He worked alone and visited museums to quench his great thirst for knowledge. The 1947 Van Gogh retrospective at the Musée de l’Orangerie at the Tuilleries was a major revelation for him, marking a turning point in his artistic career. He exhibited for the first time at the Salone degli Indipendenti. In 1950, three years later, the painting that he showed again at the Salone degli Indipendenti was noticed by critics.

He got his first solo exhibition in Paris at (Galerie La Boétie) and took part in group exhibitions like Vendémiaires with Jacques Villon, André Marchand, Antoni Clavé, and Bernard Buffet. He now took part in regular group exhibitions including Salon d’Automne, Salon des Jeunes Peintres, Salon Comparaisons, Salon de Mai (since 1969), and more. 

In 1953, the State purchased his painting (Yellow Cup and Apple).

The following year the City of Paris bought it.

In 1954, he exhibited with the Rencontres group with Edouard Pignon. Until his death, Bierge exhibited regularly in France and abroad, garnering many awards and honors over the years. Landscapes, portraits, nudes, and still lifes were his preferred subjects.He made forays as well into pastel, lithography, and stained glass (in the Bouchevilliers church in Eure). 

Post-cubism

In the 1950s, Bierge was drawn to the works of André Lhote and Jacques Villon and ventured into a post-cubist style that evolved over time. In the 1960s, he shifted from design to three-dimensional representation and the heightened use of colors.

After 1969, he switched to non-figurative art, with an intense polychrome palette. 

The Polychromes

After Bierge shifted styles, the Polychromes were part of his final period. They are about the art of balance and color harmony.

He died in 1991 in Saint-Antoine (Gers). 

Featured works

Our product catalog features a still life by Roland Bierge