Following his schooling at Large-Chênois in Montbeliard, Messagier moved to Paris. There he studied two years at the National Superior School of Decorative Arts. His professors included Roland Oudot, Maurice Brianchon, Raymond Legueult and François Desnoyer.
Gallery of Jean Messagier
Messagier also studied with the poet Paul Valéry at the Collège de France.
Following his schooling at Large-Chênois in Montbeliard, Messagier moved to Paris. There he studied two years at the National Superior School of Decorative Arts. His professors included Roland Oudot, Maurice Brianchon, Raymond Legueult and François Desnoyer.
Jean Messagier was a French painter, sculptor, printmaker and poet. He was often associated with Lyrical abstraction, Tachisme, Nuagisme, Art informel and paysagisme abstrait, though the artist himself had never accepted any labels, and had always refused the distinction between abstraction and figuration.
Background
Jean Messagier was born on July 13, 1920 in Paris, France. He spent his childhood during the 1920s and 1930s between Paris and Franche-Comté, where his family originated and where he realized his first representational watercolors and drawings, portraits and landscapes.
Education
Following his schooling at Large-Chênois in Montbeliard, Messagier moved to Paris. There he studied two years at the National Superior School of Decorative Arts. His professors included Roland Oudot, Maurice Brianchon, Raymond Legueult and François Desnoyer. In parallel Messagier studied with the poet Paul Valéry at the Collège de France.
Jean Messagier began an artistic career in the 1940s. He first exhibited his works in a group show at the Salon des Moins de Trente Ans in Paris in 1941, before participating regularly in Parisian salons: Salon des Moins de Trente Ans, Paris in 1941-1951; Salon d'Automne in 1947-1952; Salon de Mai in 1948-1953; Jeune Gravure Contemporaine in 1950; Young Painters of the Ecole de Paris, Royal Scottish Academy, Edinburgh in 1952; Mostra dell'Incisione Francese Contemporanea, Milan in 1953; Galerie L'Étoile scellée and Galerie Craven, Paris in 1953.
Messagier had his first solo exhibition in Paris at Galerie Arc-en-Ciel in 1947. From 1945 to 1949 he worked under the influence of Pablo Picasso, André Masson, Paul Klee and François Desnoyer, his professor at École nationale supérieure des arts décoratifs in Paris.
Messagier then showed at the Galerie de Babylone in 1952 entitled "La Nouvelle École de Paris" (The New School of Paris). He was also then represented at group exhibitions in Germany, Zurich, Florence, Brussels, London and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York. Moreover, Messagier co-founded the Salon d'Octobre in Paris and exhibited there in 1952 and 1953.
In 1962, Messagier represented France at the 31st Venice Biennale. From 1962 until the year of his death Jean Messagier exhibited in France and abroad, taking part in some major international events as a representative of new trends in French painting.
In 1962, Jean Messagier and Pierre Alechinsky painted a canvas together embellished with phrases written by the art critic Charles Estienne. Messagier also wrote poetry and composed music.
Between 1963 and 1965 he made grass sculptures and snow drawings. In 1967 he participated in the release of a series of artistic postal stamps and co-created a fresco for the Salon de Mai in Paris.
In 1978 he exhibited in the 7th Alexandria Biennale for Mediterranean Countries.
Jean Messagier was often associated with Lyrical abstraction, Tachisme, Nuagisme, Art informel and paysagisme abstrait, though he had never accepted any labels, and had always refused the distinction between abstraction and figuration.
Jean Messagier died on September 10, 1999 in Montbéliard, France.
Vous-etes vous jamais laisse glisser le long d'une pente
Apocalypse du printemps
Concert de passereaux
Bourgeons de papier
Rosier en Diagonale
Après-midi montante
Composition verte
La grande fracture des matins
Nez au vivre
Ciel deplisseur
Démangeaisons du soir
3 noisettes dans le ciel
Paragraphe pour un mois de mars
Tranche courants
LES GRANDS RESPIRANTS
Rencontre de Juin
Descendre du train
Les aubergines ecrasees
Les moucherons et la chanterelle
Printemps du monde
Juillet à Antennese
Mai cousu par les fleurs de pommiers
Composition
Les mangeurs de vent
Composition rouge
Views
Quotations:
"I do not find, I search."
Membership
Jean Messagier was one of the founding members of the Salon d’Octobre and became a full member of the Comité National de la Gravure Française.
Connections
In 1944 Jean Messagier married the ceramicist Marcelle Baumann. The couple had their first child, Matthew (later to become a poet) in 1949. In 1954 Marcelle gave birth to their second son, Thomas, who would become a taxidermist. At this time the family resided in the heart of Paris, 8 Rue Pierre et Marie Curie. In 1958 their third son, Simon, was born.