French painter, draughtsman and writer, born in Lyon, France. Studied in Montpellier and since 1980 lives in Paris. He is considered an exponent of the "Figuration Libre" movement, that appeared in France in the early 1980s, and he was influenced by the powerful wave of German and Italian figuration of the early 1980s, which included such artists as Baselitz, Immendorf, Chia and Penck. Many of Combas's figures are grotesque characters, imaginary or fictitious; others appear as village idiots or fools. Although he took a cue from such sources as Pop art, comic-strip art, television, advertising material, American graffiti art, from 1985 he focused on works that turn towards more traditional themes and classical genre paintings.
