 Setting himself up in Aix-en-Provence, which had become the refuge of many artists, including André Marchand, Charles Albert Cingria and Cendrars, he participated in the exhibition "Twenty young painters of French tradition" organized by Jean Bazaine in 1941 and later exhibited at the Galerie de France in 1943.Returning to Paris in 1945, he participated in the first exhibition of the Salon de Mai.He returned the following year to Aix, staying at the Chateau Noir, where Cézanne stayed when painting at Tholonet and met André Masson, philosopher Henri Maldiney and the poet André du Bouchet who became his close friends.