Robert Combas (1957) is a French artist who became world-famous for his protest against minimalist and conceptual art in the 1980s. A prominent figure in the art movement Figuration Libre, his colours and brush strokes became stronger, more daring and more expressionistic. For Combas, human beings and all their sides are central – we often encounter, wild, strong, sexual and sometimes violent scenes in his works. The format is often on a larger scale and stretched or cut canvases are a signature of his. The subjects can also be characterised by a kind of modern horror vacui, where pattern takes over the surface of the picture with almost hypnotic effect.

For a period, Combas was represented by Leo Castelli and exhibited with artists including Keith Haring but he has mainly lived and worked in France. He has had a number of major retrospective exhibitions at venues including ARCA in Marseille (1984), Stedelijk in Amsterdam (1987), Musée d'art moderne de la Ville de Paris (1993), Fondation Mudima in Milan (2009) and the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco (2016).