Summer 2003 Art Roundup in Languedoc-Roussillon: Dufy, Support-Surface, and Venet

The Languedoc-Roussillon region of France hosted a series of contemporary art exhibitions under the banner 'Le bel été' in summer 2003. The Musée de Céret presented a historical exhibition for the 50th anniversary of Raoul Dufy's death, organized in collaboration with the Musée du Havre and La Piscine de Roubaix, featuring large bather paintings, ceramics, and fabric pattern studies. At Château de Jau (June 28–Sept. 30), a joint homage to Michel Combacal (died 1974) and André Valensi (died 2002) showcased Valensi's Support-Surface works—large square canvases in dark anthracite and brown hues, constructed from two superimposed canvases with a central cutout—alongside Combacal's pop-influenced pieces including beach cabin images, leaf-printed fabrics, and glass-encased rebuses with cigarettes and fishhooks. At L.A.C. in Sigean (June 28–Sept. 15), Charles Sandison (Scottish, based in Finland) presented programmed light projections of words on walls and floors, plus a site-specific installation of slide projections where bacteria gradually consume the material; Eberhard Havekost (German) showed near-abstract figurative paintings derived from film and video stills. At Château de Fraïssé-des-Corbières (July 11–Aug. 30), Bernar Venet exhibited mathematical equations painted directly on bumpy walls, with a preview of upcoming installations in Paris (Tuileries) and Nice (Promenade des Anglais).