Jean Messagier

Born in 1920 and died in 1999, Jean Messagier is a French painter, engraver and sculptor. Jean Messagier joined Ecole nationale supérieure des Arts Décoratifs in Paris. The artist began an artistic career in the 40's and did his first solo exhibition in Paris at Galerie Arc-en-Ciel. At this time, Jean Messagier was strongly influenced by Pablo Picasso and François Desnoyer, his former teacher. He joined the Nouvelle Ecole de Paris group in the 50's, which led him to exhibit at Galerie de Babylone, during early 50's. In 1953, the artist suddenly distanced himself from post-cubism and headed towards expressionism and tried to develop a more personal art. He drew inspiration from Jean Fautrier and Pierre Tal-Coat, using light to represent abstractly. His art was therefore qualified as lyrical abstraction, nuagist and tachist. Jean Messagier used many more mediums, ranging from sculpture to tapestry, carnival floats and wine bottle labels. He wrote poetry and composed music. Jean Messagier, the multidisciplinary artist liked to play with styles and artistic mediums in order to develop his own art. Moreover, he was never really attached to a movement, which went beyond the abstraction-figuration opposition.