Henri Baviera was born in Nice 1934. He is a native of Saint Paul de Vence, Henri Baviera works and currently lives in Lorgues (in the Var, France.)
While still very young, Baviera attends the Nice Trachel school, studying painting, drawing, engraving for three years.
Then in the 1950s, he continues painting and engraving in St Paul, under the watchful eye of experienced and confirmed artists such as Manfredo Borsi, Elmiro Celli, and many others. In 1952, at the occasion of his first painting in Saint Paul, Baviera met Picasso, who encouraged him. From 1960 to 1963, Baviera stays in Paris and attends most of the paintings academies, and the workshop Calavaert-Brown where he will enrich his technique and knowledge of engraving. He returns do Saint Paul, where he has installed his engraving and painting studio. Little by little, he moves away from figuration to a mineral phase (1962-1966). Then to a schematic period (1968-1975), and then to a dream-like period (1978-1987.) In 1988 his compositions show a sleek, architectural, and metaphysical abstraction. The 2000s see color and texture affirming new energy in a personal expression of the living world. Since 1950, many trips with more than three hundred and fifty collective and personal exhibitions have made known his work in France and abroad (USA, Canada, Japan, Germany, Italy, Denmark, Belgium, Switzerland, Holland, Brazil,) and in participating in major International Contemporary Art fairs (Paris, Basel, London, Los Angeles, New York, Tokyo, Yokohama, Ghent, Montreal, Frankfurt, Geneva, Bologna, Nice.)
Besides, periods of study and research were held in Europe, Canada, the USA, South America, Japan.
To painting, his primary activity, Baviera adds engraving, mosaic, stained glass, sculpture, ceramics, collages, installations, polyesters, etc..
In 1965, Henri Baviera starts to develop his new engraving process, “Polychromie relief.” Page | 3 Henri Baviera has made numerous creations in public spaces: mosaics (Valbonne), murals (Théoule and Marseille), Fountain (Gardanne), ceramic (Mandelieu), polyester (Geneva).
In 1968, he is the author of “Penetrable Environment” for the ORTF (National French TV channels.) This creation was used as decoration of the television show of the famous singer-songwriter Michel Polnareff, ‘A day in St Paul de Vence.’
In 1986, Baviera leaves St. Paul de Vence and opens his new Studio in Nice.
Since 1990, he takes regular trips to Japan, where he exhibits frequently.
In 2001-2002, the Japan Foundation grants him a four-month Research Fellowship to Japan, dedicated to the study of traditional paper (washi) and its use in contemporary engraving, leading to his project to make engravings “polychrome relief” without the use a press.
Since 1965, over the years, Baviera has created several ‘Artist’s Books’ with his poet friends (André Verdet, Bernard Noël, Françoise Armengaud, Michel Bohbot, Gilbert Casula, Jacques Kober, Bruno Mendonça, Alain Freixe, Claude Haza, Claude Gallot, Marcel Migozzi, Philippe Chartron, Françoise Serreau, Beatrice Machet, Daniel Leuwers, Albertine Benedetto, Raphaël Monticelli.)
In 2002, Henri Baviera sets up his studio in Lorgues (France), in the middle of nature, where he lives and continues to work.