Artwork from the JSP Estate/Private Collection

 

Artist

Jean Hélion

Nationality

French

Artist Dates

1904-1987

Preview

image preview

Date of Work

1938

Medium

Linocut

Height

12 1/2"

Width

9 1/2"

Collection/Provenance

Art & Design Study Collection: James Smith Pierce Collection

Status

Stored: R28

Location

UND Art Collections Repository

Artist Bio

Jean Hélion was a French painter born in 1904 in Couterne, France. Hélion studied chemistry for a short time at the Institut Industriel du Nord, and then became an apprentice of architecture shortly after. He painted while he was an apprentice, and in 1925 Georges Bine, a collector, noticed Hélion's talent and he was able to spend the rest of his life painting. Hélion is best known for his abstract and expressionist compositions. Works by Jean Hélion can be found in the permanent collections of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, the Tate Museum, The Smithsonian Art Museum and several other collections internationally.

Additional Information

This work was created for the fourth issue of the Pairs art magazine XXe Siècle. Hélion went through several different styles during his career as a painter, beginning with his discovery of abstract art over traditional art, and his later rejection of abstract art in favor of figurative painting.

This work was created during his abstract and modernist phase. During this phase most of Hélion's work contained geometric shapes and graphic colors before beginning to incorporate more human figures in his art. This is also one of only a few prints by Jean Hélion to incorporate one color on a solid background.

Purple on light blue.

Work included in 'School of Paris' exhibition, 2019.

Condition

Very good

Condition Notes

tape on verso

Rights

Images are provided for educational purposes only and may not be reproduced for commercial use. Images may be protected by artist copyright. A credit line is required to be used for any public non-commercial educational purpose. The credit line must include, “Image courtesy of the University of North Dakota.”

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