Galerie Françoise Proux-Leblanc EN

Little girl from Morocco, born on May 26, 1939 in Rabat, from a family passionate about art, she lived her first years surrounded by artists. Her grandfather and her father practiced sculpture and photography as amateurs, which influenced her desire to become a painter. Françoise Proux went to school in Paris at the age of 11. Then as a teenager, she continued her studies in Bordeaux. The year she turned 18, the whole family moved to Bayonne (Basque coast) where the young woman attended an institution with the aim of becoming an accomplished wife of the bourgeoisie. It was during a dance organized by the Officers’ Mess that she met Lieutenant Maurice Leblanc. The young lovers got married in 1962. Some time later, the Leblancs left for the Ivory Coast. New landscapes and the discovery of diverse cultures are offered to her, – an important step in her life as an artist! She immersed herself in forms, colors, imagination and music. Back in France, Françoise, Maurice and their children settled in Kremlin Bicêtre. The Paris region provides great opportunities to train in art.

Françoise Proux-Leblanc is a woman of assertive character, contemplative and creative, who is curious about nature and life in general. In the 80’s, the young woman enrolled at the Ecole Municipale des Beaux Arts in Villejuif (Paris region) in the studio of Nicolas Stavropoulos who became her workshop leader. The painter transmitted his artistic universe to her; he taught her academic drawing and the fundamentals. To complete her practice, Françoise read many art books. The artist was influenced by different movements such as constructivism, futurism – modern art. Proux-Leblanc likes the idea of Russian constructivism: inventing the impossible and disturbing the ability to see the usual forms. Thus in his painting entitled « Rue Saint Exupéry » (1982), the artist is clearly in this pictorial approach. Movement and the interaction between form, instability, volume, complexity and diversity are common to constructivism and deconstructivism.