Roberto Mangou, also known as Roberto Mangu Quesada, and Roberto Mangú, is a European

Citizenship of the European Union

Citizenship of the European Union was introduced by the Maastricht Treaty . European citizenship is supplementary to national citizenship and affords rights such as the right to vote in European elections, the right to free movement and the right to consular protection from other EU states'...

 painter, born in 1948 and raised in France

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

, from Italian

Italian people

The Italian people are an ethnic group that share a common Italian culture, ancestry and speak the Italian language as a mother tongue. Within Italy, Italians are defined by citizenship, regardless of ancestry or country of residence , and are distinguished from people...

 and Spanish

Spanish people

The Spanish are citizens of the Kingdom of Spain. Within Spain, there are also a number of vigorous nationalisms and regionalisms, reflecting the country's complex history....

 descent. A graduate of the Beaux-Arts

École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts

The École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-arts is the distinguished National School of Fine Arts in Paris, France.The École des Beaux-arts is made up of a vast complex of buildings located at 14 rue Bonaparte, between the quai Malaquais and the rue Bonaparte, in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Près,...

 in architecture, Mangú has lived and worked in Paris

Paris

Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...

, Milan

Milan

Milan is the second-largest city in Italy and the capital city of the region of Lombardy and of the province of Milan. The city proper has a population of about 1.3 million, while its urban area, roughly coinciding with its administrative province and the bordering Province of Monza and Brianza ,...

, Sevilla, La Rochelle

La Rochelle

La Rochelle is a city in western France and a seaport on the Bay of Biscay, a part of the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital of the Charente-Maritime department.The city is connected to the Île de Ré by a bridge completed on 19 May 1988...

, Toulouse

Toulouse

Toulouse is a city in the Haute-Garonne department in southwestern FranceIt lies on the banks of the River Garonne, 590 km away from Paris and half-way between the Atlantic Ocean and the Mediterranean Sea...

 before moving to Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

 where he currently resides.

Though he has also worked successfully as an architect

Architect

An architect is a person trained in the planning, design and oversight of the construction of buildings. To practice architecture means to offer or render services in connection with the design and construction of a building, or group of buildings and the space within the site surrounding the...

, building notably an internationally acclaimed villa in the Parisian suburbs, Mangú is first and foremost a painter.

Because of the vitality shown in his earlier paintings notably "Virée sur la côte" or "Taureau mécanique" , his extraordinary knowledge and skillful use of colours especially intense reds (cf Lola), his work is sometimes cited as belonging to one of the following movements: neo-expressionism

Neo-expressionism

Neo-expressionism is a style of modern painting and sculpture that emerged in the late 1970s and dominated the art market until the mid-1980s...

, or Transavantgarde

Transavantgarde

Transavantgarde is the Italian version of Neo-expressionism, an art movement that swept through Italy, and the rest of Western Europe, in the late 1970s and 1980s. The term transavantgarde was coined by the Italian art critic, Achille Bonito Oliva, and literally means beyond the avant-garde...

. Some have also wrongly likened his work to that of the nouveaux fauves.

Yet, Mangú's work is far too original and personal to be so easily classified. Over time, he has shifted to darker colours and used a variety of techniques, working notably sometimes in negative: the object is drawn by taking off (rather than adding) colour through painting large surfaces in white on a coloured background (the "Pan y Vino" series).

There are recurring themes in the work of Mangú: standing men, monoliths, saints, which all seem to converge in his large masterpiece, a dark "Saint-Georges

Saint-Georges

-People:*Chevalier de Saint-Georges French composer and violinist*Jules-Henri Vernoy de Saint-Georges French librettist-In Canada:*Saint-Georges, Quebec, a city in the Beauce-Sartigan Regional County Municipality...

".

Main individual exhibitions

• 1983, Galerie Georges Lavrov, Paris,
• 1984, Galerie Georges Lavrov, Paris,
• 1984, Galerie Catherine Macé, Cannes
• 1985, Galerie Catherine Macé, Cannes
• 1988, Galerie Ontiveros, Madrid
• 1988, Galerie Georges Fall, Paris
• 1989, Galerie Catherine Macé, Cannes
• 1989, Galerie Ontiveros, Madrid
• 1990, Galerie Ontiveros, Madrid
• 1991, Galleria Philipe Daverio, Milano
• 1992, Galleria Philipe Daverio, Milano
• 1995, Galleria Philipe Daverio, Milano
• 1998, 'Saint-Georges', Galerie Georges Fall, Paris
• 2001, Palazzo delle Stelline, Centre Culturel Français, Milan
• 2003, Regard, Galleria Venti Correnti, Milano
• 2005, MUDIMAdrie, Antwerpen
• 2006, 'Fuego', Galleria Venti Correnti, Milano
• 2007, 'Permanenza', Galleria L'Archimede, Roma

Main collective exhitions

Salon de Montrouge, International Contemporary Art Fair (London), Academia di Brera (Milan), Fiera d'arte contemporanea di Milano, Linéart (Gand, Belgium), Art Paris, De leurs temps, collections privées françaises ADIAF (Musée des Beaux-Arts de Tourcoing)

External links

• http://www.undo.net/cgi-bin/undo/pressrelease/pressrelease.pl?id=1193219186&day=1193263200