Rising Circles - Georges Rousse

Georges Rousse (FR, 1947) lives and works in Paris.

Ever since the Christmas when Georges Rousse received the legendary Kodak Brownie Flash as a gift, the camera has been his constant companion. While studying medicine in Nice, Georges Rousse decided to learn the techniques of shooting and printing from a professional, and then went on to set up his own architectural photography studio. His passion led him to devote himself entirely to the artistic practice of this medium, following in the footsteps of the great American masters such as Steichen, Stieglitz and Ansel Adams. It was with the discovery of Malevich’s Black Square and then Land Art that Georges Rousse chose to embark in the field of photography by establishing an unprecedented relationship between painting and space. He broached abandoned sites that he had always loved, transforming them into pictorial spaces and creating ephemeral, unique works that only photography could reproduce. Since his first exhibition in Paris at the Galerie de France in 1981, Georges Rousse has exhibited and worked all over the world (Europe, Asia, the United States, Latin America, etc.), pursuing his artistic path beyond passing fads. His works can be found in numerous public and private collections. He has taken part in several contemporary art biennials in Paris, Venice and Sydney, and has received numerous prestigious grants and awards, including the Villa Médicis Hors Les Murs grant in New York in 1983; the Villa Médicis prize in Rome in 1985 and 1987; the ICP International Center of Photography (ICP) prize in New York in 1988; the Romain Rolland grant in Calcutta (India) in 1992; and the Grand Prix national de Photographie in Paris (France) in 1993. A world-renowned artist, Georges Rousse is a lover of Japan. After the earthquake that struck Hanshin-Awaji (Kobe) in 1995, the artist took 8 photographs of damaged buildings and turned these disappearing spaces into a work of art, preserving their memory in his own way. In March 2011, he also lent his support to the Tohoku region after the Fukushima nuclear disaster by taking part in the auction organised by the French Embassy in Japan in Paris to help the disaster-stricken regions. In 2008, Georges Rousse succeeded Sol Lewitt as associate member of the Académie Royale de Belgique. He has more than two hundred solo exhibitions to his credit. By establishing a new relationship between painting, space and photography, Georges Rousse has been developing a strong and singular body of work that has been shifting the boundaries between traditional media for over forty years.