Biography

Claude M. Seren, french painter, born May 13, 1940 in Antananarivo, Madagascar. His father was a mining engineer. His grandfather arrived on the island in 1902. He first boarder at Jesuit College of Saint Michel Antananarivo, then the St-Eloi College of Aix-en-Provence. In 1960 he completed his military service in Morocco, where he meets a woman painter who taught him the technique of oil painting. On his return to France, he lived many years in Paris where he held various jobs to continue painting.

He travels the Americas (North and South), Australia, Asia, Japan, the Caribbean, Kenya, and Madagascar where he will return several times, usually backpack. He made numerous meetings that enrich his life as man and artist. Among others, an American antiquarian who introduced him to the discovery of art. The writer James Herlihy ("Macadam Cowboy") introduces him his friend Anais Nin whose he painted a large portrait in the late 70's. The After Dark magazine made him known in the United States. Claude left Paris to settle in the Uzes region where he lived 25 years, living in different houses that he restores alone, in several villages.

All his life he will paint because painting was his life. He always defined himself as "painter". His painting evolves from a pictorial performance influenced by painters he admired, especially Gaughin, Van Gogh, Picasso, to a painting where he introduced the influence of Aboriginal Art from Australia and Africa. His last works are haunted by Africa: the Nuba warriors, the series of masks, the Chaos in Haiti. In recent years he lived in Southern Burgundy where he bought and restored a house. After a decade without exposing, he prepared an exhibition, but he died suddenly September 28, 2010. ●