Jean-Michel ATLAN
(1913-1960)
The wizard of modern painting
“I paint as one sings a myth.”
Why does it still fascinate today?
Poet, resistance fighter, self-taught, he developed a unique, totemic, organic, spiritual style of painting.
A biomorphic abstraction somewhere between mythical bestiary and secret writing. Muted colors, thick lines, an almost sacred atmosphere. Its forms evoke ancient rituals, magical signs, and hybrid beings.
His works are dense, mysterious, like maps of an inner world. Archaic language and magical abstraction.
A very contemporary work
The shapes evoke both glyphs and esoteric NFTs.
Echoing the return of alternative spiritualities, with the interest in raw, tribal art, with the need for a visual language beyond the rational.
He rejects all schools, all standards.
A modern mystic, a world painter.
Why is it presented here?
Because Atlan is the brilliant outsider of the post-war period. A friend of Asger Jorn and the CoBrA movement, he influenced Soulages, Mathieu, and Hartung while remaining aloof from the factions.
Because he is a painter-sorcerer, a magician of forms. He created a mystical, interior, intense language. An artist for those who seek more than beauty.
Because he left behind a short but significant body of work. He is collected by all the major museums and is one of the most trusted names in French abstraction.
Where to see it?
- Pompidou Center, Paris
- Museum of Modern Art of the City of Paris
- Nantes Museum of Fine Arts
- Cantini Museum, Marseille
- Tel Aviv Museum of Art