Jean Helion / translations by Trista Selous (Essays, Chronology), Judith Hayward and Simon Knight (Chronology)
2004, First English Edition. London : Paul Holberton. Fine paperback copy. Particularly and surprisingly well-preserved; tight, bright, clean and especially sharp-cornered. ; 216 pages; Physical desc. : 216 p. : ill. ; 28 cm. "This book accompanies the exhibition of the same title at the Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, 8 December 2004-6 March 2005." --p. [2] Includes bibliographical references (p. 205-209) and index. Subject: Helion, Jean (1904-1987) --Exhibitions --Concrete art --France. Summary: Jean Hélion (1904-1987) became a leading member of the international Abstraction-Creation group in the early 1930s. He then took abstraction to New York, where he advised the avant-garde collector A. E. Gallatin on purchases for his Gallery of Living Art, a crucial influence on the early phases of the developing New York School. In France after World War II, however, he evolved a unique language of painting, employing people and objects that are both contructivist and naturalistic--his own language of signs populated by shopwindow dummies, newspaper readers, and startling nudes. In his return to figuration he may be compared to his close friends Balthus and Alberto Giacometti, even though his style is unique. This book is the first in English on the artist for some thirty years. It accompanies a retrospective exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, Paris, commemorating the hundredth anniversary of his birth. It travelled to the National Academy of Design, New York, in the summer of 2005. Item #155357
ISBN: 1903470277
Price: €19.95