Jean Hélion

A survey of the surprising career of French artist Jean Hélion. Deeply committed to abstraction in the thirties, when abstract art became mainstream after World War Two Hélion began to explore other styles.

This retrospective exhibition traces the unusual trajectory of Jean Hélion. In 1930, along with Theo van Doesburg, Otto Carlsund and Léon Tutundjian, he co-founded Art Concret, the avant-garde movement that championed the most radical form of abstract art. When the trend was well established, however, after the Second World War, Hélion turned to figurative painting. As his political ideas collapsed, his domestic scenes would become allegories of modern life, subsequently inspiring new generations of artists such as Jim Dine, representative of American Pop Art, or Gilles Aillaud and Eduardo Arroyo in Europe.