37

Jean Hélion

(1904-1987)

Abstraction.

Ink and watercolor on paper laid to illustration board, 1936.
Signed and dated in ink at upper right.
12 1/4 x 9 1/2 in. (31.1 x 24.1 cm.)

  • Provenance:
    Galerie Editions Karl Flinker, Paris.
    Private collection, California.
    Acquired by the present owner, 2025.

    French artist, Jean Hélion was a founding member of "Art Concret" and involved with the "Abstraction Creation" movement of the 1920s. He befriended many American artists in Paris and encouraged their efforts to apply modernist techniques in their art. With his American wife, he first visited the United States in 1932 and moved to New York in 1936. Hélion was a proponent of modern art by American artists and was instrumental in the founding of the American Abstract Artists group, founded in 1936, subsequently the year this watercolor was created. He joined and exhibited with the AAA but returned to France in 1940 to serve in the army. He was captured by the Germans and imprisoned in a camp in Poland but escaped and returned to New York where he was publicly vocal about the war effort and promoting the French resistance.
  • Condition:
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December 18, 2025 12:00 PM EST
New York, NY, US

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