René Genis was born on July 26, 1922 in Hué, Annam, French Indonesia (Vietnam). Genis went with his family to Gironde, Arcachon in Bordeaux, France in 1931. Starting in 1940 he studied for five years at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Bordeaux, which won him a four year scholarship to the Ecole des Arts Décoratifs in Paris with Albert Marquet and Marcel Gromaire.

He exhibited at the Salon de la Jeune Peinture and participated in group shows throughout France. He had his first one-man show at Galerie Charpentier in Paris in 1956. A painter, printmaker and illustrator, Genis taught at the College de Pontoise. From that time, Genis exhibited his paintings at the Salon de la Jeune Peinture, and he received the prize in 1960. For forty years...