We knew the business leader with an associative spirit; now it’s the contemporary artist whom we can discover until June 15 at the Olivo Chapel in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, embodied by Robert Roux. An exhibition not to be missed under any pretext for lovers of Pop Art and French Nouveau Realism.
“We are thus confronted with a paradox with the ‘audio-visual’ paintings of Robert Roux. On one hand, an overflow of brand images so familiar to us that they almost become a part of us, like signs of belonging to the same social body; on the other hand, a cutting and reassembling of these same word-images that render them almost foreign, opaque, to the point that they reflect back to us the mirror of our own strangeness, strangeness to others as much as to ourselves and our own culture.” This is how Norbert Hilaire, University Professor and Head of the Department of Communication Sciences at the University of Nice Sophia-Antipolis, analyzes the artist’s work.
But to learn more about someone who manages, compresses, or assembles Coca Cola, Schweppes, or Lipton, here are a few questions Robert Roux kindly answered…
NP: Robert, happy about this opening and the upcoming exhibition?
RR: Yes, of course, very happy to exhibit in such a beautiful place (sic)… the location is magnificent and sublimates the work we present… and then, I was touched by the number and quality of people who came to this opening…
NP: What can we discover in the Santa Maria de Olivo chapel until next June 15?
RR: 17 pieces created in the previous two years, including a large cross made for the โcoke en stockโ exhibition that gathered twelve Nice artists around the Coca-Cola brand. This work is called โin coke we trustโ and perfectly finds its place in this magnificent chapel…
NP: As involved in art as in public life then?
RR: Yes, as involved, I would say even for longer, but more discreetly! It took the encouragement of my partner Vรฉronique and artist Yves Hayat for me to finally dare to present this work I had been doing for years. Besides, I am a collector, and being around artists has been both an obstacle (they are so good!) and an encouragement from them.
NP: Is it vital for you to be able to navigate between entrepreneurship, associative work, and art?
RR: I don’t think that business, art, and associative work are separable… by definition entrepreneurs love to create, innovate, invent… No wonder there are so many collectors among them, and many artists as well who emerge later in life…
NP: If I say Warhol…?
RR: If you say “Warhol…” I reply “Wow!!!…” what a reference! More seriously, Warhol, the pope of pop art, significantly promoted the use of commercial brands and consumer objects.
NP: What artistic performance would you dream of accomplishing?
RR: My artistic dream, like many artists, is to entirely decorate a small chapel…
NP: According to you, does Art, in its entirety, have the place it deserves or should have in Nice?
RR: No, far from it! The artistic capital of our city is very insufficiently exploited… Nice should have a huge museum, the size of the Guggenheim in Bilbao, or the Reina Sofรญa in Madrid, which would attract tourists from all over the world… There should also be a Modern Art Show worthy of the name. As for galleries, they are numerous, and there are many, many events, openings, performances… but in the artistic domain, there are many ‘chapels,’ communication is difficult, and egos are inevitably oversized, nothing that actually facilitates the dissemination and promotion of these events.
NP: Finally, will Robert Roux soon exhibit in Nice?
RR: I would love to exhibit in Nice!… but apart from Jean Jacques CHAUBARD, who kindly presented my work more than two years ago, the proposals I have received don’t match my work. But thereโs no rush…
