Le Chevallier et la mort, 1962

Luc Simon  

Luc Simon (1924-2011) is a painter, a sculptor, a lithographer, an illustrator, a stained-glass artist, and a French actor, born in Reims on September 8, 1924. Heir to a prestigious lineage of Reims master glaziers, he is the son of Jacques Simon, a famous master glazier, and grew up in an environment where art holds a central place. This early immersion nourishes a deeply humanistic artistic practice, marked by great freedom of creation and mastery of multiple techniques. His work, which oscillates between poetic figuration, symbolism, sacred art, and contemporary expression, testifies to a constant search around the human condition, spirituality, and transmission. Painting, lithography, engraving, stained glass, sculpture, contemporary art, and figuration constitute the main axes of his work.
After an artistic training, Luc Simon became a resident of the prestigious Casa de Velázquez in Madrid between 1950 and 1951, a determining experience that enriches his plastic language in contact with Spanish painting and the great masters. Throughout his career, he develops a rich body of work where painting, drawing, monumental sculpture, illustration, and stained glass creation mingle. His iconographic universe is populated by allegorical figures, imaginary characters, and scenes inspired by great literary, mythological, and religious narratives. His expressive style, his taste for narrative compositions, and his sense of color give his work a singular identity, at the crossroads of dream and philosophical reflection.
Starting in 1955, Luc Simon has been the subject of numerous personal exhibitions and retrospectives in France and abroad. Among the most notable is “Luc Simon, the Legendary Morals", presented successively at the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Reims, the Musée de Mulhouse, in Gengenbach (Germany), in Belfort, and then at the Pinacothèque d'Athènes (Greece). His work is also exhibited in many French galleries and institutions, while his monumental creations and stained glass pieces are found in several religious buildings and public spaces. In parallel, he creates many illustrations for books and continues as a sculptor and decorator.
A complete artist, Luc Simon has always claimed independence from dominant trends. His work favors emotion, narrative, and the evocative power of images rather than adherence to a particular school. The richness of his journey and the diversity of his practices make him an important figure in the French art scene of the 20th century. Even today, his works are sought after for their expressive force, their symbolic dimension, and their permanent dialogue between painting, sculpture, lithography, stained glass, humanism, and imagination, confirming the singular place of Luc Simon in the history of French contemporary art.