Henry Valensi
1883 – 1960

Henry Valensi was born on September 17, 1883 in Algeria.

Valensi moved to Paris in 1898 and studied at L’Ecole des Beaux Arts de Paris in the studios of Jules Lefebrve and Tony Robert-Fleury. Before World War I, Valensi traveled throughout Europe and in Russia, Turkey, and Greece. This voyage greatly inspired him. In 1912 he participated in the creation of the Section d’Or, along side the likes of Marcel Duchamp, Picabia, Dumont and Gleizes among others. During the war he was the peintre de l’Etat-Major du General Gourand and he collected many war documents that are now in the Musée de la Guerre de Vincennes. After the war he began traveling again in Europe and Africa.

In 1923 Valensi exhibited in Rome, the introduction of the catalogue was written by Marinetti, Valensi was consider a French Futurist.

Valensi was the leader of the group of artists that he himself named the “Musicalistes.” Painting during the 1930s through the 1950s, the “Musicalistes” interpreted the rhythms of music in two dimensions through abstract shapes.

Valensi organized and participated in twenty-three Salon de Peinture Musicaliste exhibitions in Paris, the first one being in 1932 at Galerie Renaissance. He exhibited in the Salon des Orientalistes from 1905 and in the Salon des Indépendants in Paris from1907.

Valensi also participated in many other Musicaliste exhibitions in cities across Europe such as Prague, Amsterdam, Rotterdam, Budapest, Bratislavia, and Limoges. After World War II he participated in the Salon des Realités Nouvelles in 1947 of which he later became the committee’s vice-president.

Valensi also had some personal exhibitions: Vichy, 1909; Galerie la Boétie, Paris 1913; exhibition organized by Marinetti in 1923.
In 1973 the first retrospective of the Salons Musicalistes was held in Paris at the Galerie Hexagramme, and Valensi was then represented in an exhibition Paris-Moscou at the Centre Georges Pompidou in 1979.