Background
Jean Helion was born on April 21, 1904 in Couterne, France (on January 1, 2016, Couterne was merged into the new commune of Rives-d'Andaine, France). He was the son of a taxi driver and a dressmaker.
Institut Industriel du Nord
31 Rue d'Ulm, 75005 Paris, France
École Nationale Supérieure des Arts Décoratifs
Jean Helion was born on April 21, 1904 in Couterne, France (on January 1, 2016, Couterne was merged into the new commune of Rives-d'Andaine, France). He was the son of a taxi driver and a dressmaker.
In 1920, Jean entered Institut Industriel du Nord in Lille to study chemistry, but left the following year to become an architectural apprentice at the École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs in Paris. In 1925, he abandoned his architectural studies and began attending figure drawing classes at the Académie Adler.
In 1918, Jean Helion started his career as an assistant to a pharmacist. In 1926, the painter was introduced to Cubism by the Uruguayan painter Joaquin Torres-Garcia. Two years later, in 1928, Jean exhibited his works at the Salon des Independants for the first time. In 1930, with Theo van Doesburg and others, he formed the artists' association Art Concret and the periodical of the same name.
In 1931, after traveling through Europe and the Soviet Union, Helion returned to Paris, where he met Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst and Tristan Tzara. His first solo show was held at the Galerie Pierre in Paris in 1932. The same year, the painter traveled to New York for the first time, where he held his solo exhibition at the John Becker Gallery at the end of the following year.
Upon his return to Europe in 1934, Jean Helion met Jacques Lipchitz, Joan Miro and Ben Nicholson. Some time later, in 1936, the painter returned to the United States, where he divided his time between Virginia and New York. In 1938, Jean left for Paris on the occasion of his solo exhibition at the Galerie Pierre. During that time in France, he befriended Paul Eluard and Yves Tanguy.
Since 1939, Helion started to integrate figurative elements into his work. This return to figuration was the hallmark of his postwar paintings.
In 1940, Jean joined the French Army. Taken prisoner on June 19, 1940, he was held on a prison ship in Stettin an der Oder (now Szczecin, Poland) until February 13, 1942, when he escaped. Four days later, Jean made his way to Paris. In October of the same year, he left for the United States, where he spoke on radio and in lecture halls in support of Free France. His book about his experiences "They Shall Not Have Me" became a best-seller in the United States. In 1943, Helion started to paint again, creating a series of depersonalized images of men in hats. During that time, he also painted women at open windows and men, reading newspapers.
Helion returned to Paris in 1946. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, his work was shown in Europe and New York. During the 1970s, he exhibited primarily in France. In October 1983, Jean stopped painting, when he became blind as the result of a brain tumor.
Etude
Unknown title
Untitled (Hélion 29)
Nu accoudé
Ile de France
La Citrouille et son reflet
Man with a Shoe
Composition
Leland Bell Reading I
Fallen Figure
Etude e 195
Accident
Untitled
Equilibrium
Nu Accoudé
A rebours
Untitled
Triptyque du Dragon
Equilibre
Untitled (Hélion 33, 5F)
Untitled (Sketchbook page)
Untitled (Hélion H. 33)
The Big Daily Read (Grande Journalerie)
Composition orthogonale
Untitled
Abstraction
Suite Puciere
Au cycliste
Figure rose
Nude with Loaves
Untitled (Skull Series)
Untitled (Sketchbook page)
Untitled (Hélion 34)
Page de Musique
Abstract Composition
Mannequinerie en solde
Pegeen
Remake
L'Abstraction, Le Peintre et le Modele
Big Pumpkin Event
Quotations:
"I understand abstract art as an attempt to feed imagination with a world built through the basic sensations of the eyes."
"A mature artist is at the same time aware of the futility of his achievement and the validity of the pursuit."
"You don't dream about angles and surfaces and so on. You dream about women, bread, smokes and trees."
"Art is, from any point of view, the greatest of risks."
In the mid-1920s, Helion entered a milieu of artists, that included Otto Freundlich and Joaquin Torres-Garcia.
Helion was married four times. His third wife was Pegeen Vail Guggenheim. Jean had one child, Fabrice Helion.