Jean Soyer

Jean Soyer is a French painter who was born in 1937. After studying the trades of engraving, lithographing and graphic designing at the École Estienne (Graduate School of Arts and Printing Industry), he built a carrier as a publicist.

The sight of a Nicolas de Staël's painting in 1987 made him conscious of an imperious need to transcribe his feelings into painting. He left the tracks of the master and accomplished himself into his own style of lyric abstraction with the influences of Georges Mathieu and Fabienne Verdier, which allowed himself from 1997 on to make his passion a profession.

His oil, knife and comb paintings are recognizable from their warm and intense colors, deep contrasts, calligraphic gestures, and dynamic compositions which seem to expand far beyond the canvas.

Since 2007, Jean Soyer presides over the Salon Violet, a contemporary art salon created in 1935 and which biennial expositions allow to turn the light on a large selection of artists.