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François Godebski was born in 1940 in Bellegarde in the Gard department in France. Coming from a family of artists, he was a painter like his father and a sculptor like his grandfather and great-grandfather. In 1958, at the age of 18, he moved to Paris to study architecture, but he quickly became bored as he did not feel in his element. He dedicated himself entirely to drawing, painting, and sculpture, and took painting classes at the Académie de la Grande Chaumière while working for a craftsman who made artificial flowers. It was there that he made an important discovery for the future of his work: polyester resin.
Polyester resin, also known as "fractured" or fractal resin, results from advanced expertise; it is obtained through complex chemical processes, high-temperature cooking, successive shaping, and polishing. It can be filled with bubbles or crystals, fragmented, glittered, or with inclusions. Given the manufacturing technique, fractal resin works, with their cosmos-inspired aesthetics, are always unique pieces with a spectacular effect, perfect shine, and clarity.
The artist was a jack-of-all-trades and an avant-gardist, not focusing on a single material; his first sculptures date back to 1962 and are made of all kinds of elements ranging from electronic circuits to resin. After a few years in Paris, he was forced to return to the Gard department to continue his creations in fractal resin because the chemical fumes from working with plastic were not tolerated in the capital.
François Godebski's first works in fractal resin were spheres, sometimes with inclusions (watch elements or others). In this material he loved, he also created obelisks, various objects, furniture, and abstract sculptures.
In 1983, he founded the “Fédération autonome des artistes du sud” (Autonomous Federation of Southern Artists), and for three consecutive years, from 1984 to 1986, he organized “Boulev'Art”, an exhibition taking place during the feria of Nîmes. Some of the artist's works can be found in the streets of the city of Nîmes. He passed away in 1997 at the age of 57.
