Classic Race

Hervé Di Rosa is a painter born in Sète, France on December 17, 1959.

After obtaining his baccalaureate, he did a year of preparatory studies and entered the Decorative Arts in Paris where he studied animation. 

Hervé Di Rosa is very inspired by the comic book culture. His Parisian life allowed him to rub shoulders and share a workshop with Robert Combas and François Boisrond.

At just twenty years old, Hervé Di Rosa exhibited in Paris, Amsterdam and New York. At a very young age, Hervé Di Rosa sold paintings to collectors who were already passionate about his world.

In 1981, Hervé Di Rosa co-founded the Figuration libre movement, inspired by comics, rock and graffiti.

The Figuration libre was born in the 1980s. It was also carried by artists such as Robert Combas, his brother Richard Di Rosa, Remi Blanchard, François Boisrons, Catherine Viollet or Louis Jammes.

Hervé Di Rosa has made a world tour that has allowed him to diversify his artistic approach. Travelling is vital for him, it is a real way of life.

He has notably been to Bulgaria, Tunisia, Ghana, Benin, Cameroon, Israel, the United States, Cuba, Mexico, South Africa and Ethiopia.

In 1989, his visit to Tunisia allowed him to collaborate with local artisans and he produced two silk-screen prints in a workshop in Tunis.

Wherever he goes, Hervé Di Rosa does not leave indifferent, and above all, he soaks up the cultures he discovers. He is a globe trotter artist driven by a great openness of mind and respect for his fellow man.

Around the world, Hervé Di Rosa has developed a style and a universe of his own, populated by recurring characters. He has practiced many creative techniques: painting, sculpture, tapestry, printmaking, fresco, lacquer, ceramics, cartoons, digital images, comics...

This versatile artist is also the author and subject of more than 150 books and art publications between 1978 and 2021.

In 2000, with Bernard Belluc, Hervé Di Rosa founded a museum: the Musée International des Arts Modestes (MIAM). This museum based in Sète in the Hérault region of France exhibits artists from all over the world and builds exhibitions that question the world of contemporary art and its borders.

"A critic had found the name of Figuration Libre to qualify us at the beginning (Di Rosa, Combas, Blanchard, Boisrond...), and that never satisfied me and even horrified me. Free, okay, but figurative, I don't give a fuck. But I hadn't found anything better. And modest art, I found it not long ago to define all these things we were defending. It came after the Viva Di Rosa exhibition at the Musée d'Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris (1990), two years ago, where hundreds of young people passed by; and at one point a little girl said: "That's good, when are we going to return to modest art? ". Damn, that was right! The slip of the tongue was very good. That was THE name! I made it up by poking it." Hervé Di Rosa.

In 2012, Hervé Di Rosa exhibits his large formats in La Rochelle at the space ENCAN. In 2014, he installs what he calls the "Modest Tropics" at the Quai Branly Museum in Paris.

Since 1981, his art has been the subject of over 200 solo exhibitions. He is collected worldwide.

Today, Hervé Di Rosa lives and works in Lisbon, Portugal.