Born in Belgium in 1906, Paul-Henri Bourguignon studied at the Brussels' Académie des Beaux Arts and at the Université Libre de Bruxelles . His first solo exhibition was at the Galérie d'Egmont in Brussels at age 22.
As an art critic and journalist throughout the 1940's and 50's, Bourguignon had an insatiable curiosity about the diversity of human culture and traveled extensively through Spain, Corsica, France, Italy, Yugoslavia, North Africa, Peru and the Caribbean. He eventually settled in Columbus, Ohio in 1950 with his wife when she was awarded a teaching position at Ohio State University. From that period until his death in 1988, the artist was prolific in producing paintings that vividly recalled both the scenery and the people he encountered during his decades of travel.
Though clearly influenced by his European contemporaries, Bourguignon successfully infused his work with personal experience as well as a deep admiration for the "primitive" works he observed in Haiti and Peru.
Today, Bourguignon's works can be found in public and private collections through-out the U.S. and Europe.
___