FRENCH ABSTRACTION EXHIBITION | MODERNE ART FAIR 2025

October 23–26, 2025 | Place de la Concorde
Postwar Abstract Art in France

On the occasion of Moderne Art Fair 2025, and in collaboration with Galerie Artisyou, a landmark exhibition is dedicated to postwar abstract art in France, a foundational current of artistic modernity. True to its DNA—making modern art a central pillar since 2008—the fair offers a journey tracing the emergence of non-figuration in the mid-20th century and highlights its aesthetic and intellectual diversity.

After the Liberation, the French art scene experienced a genuine effervescence. Confronted with the trauma of war and the need to rethink the role of art, many artists abandoned figuration to explore new paths in abstraction. These movements—known as lyrical abstraction, art informel, and tachisme—differed from prewar geometric abstraction by privileging the spontaneity of gesture, the energy of matter, and the expression of interiority. Alongside the rise of Abstract Expressionism in New York, Paris became one of the principal centers of this radical redefinition of pictorial language.

The exhibition opens with a work by Serge Charchoune (Composition dadaïste, 1928), heralding the first steps toward a non-geometric abstraction, followed by one of Alberto Magnelli’s very earliest abstract works, dated 1937—a decisive stage on the road to non-figuration. A 1942 work by André Masson, created during his American exile, illustrates the importance of exchanges between the Paris and New York scenes in the genesis of Abstract Expressionism.

The 1950s are presented as a moment of apogee and profusion. Around Gérard Schneider, an emblematic figure of lyrical abstraction, we find Alfred Manessier, whose spiritual painting marked the movement through its chromatic depth; Camille Bryen, theorist of art informel and a pioneer of tachisme; Huguette Arthur Bertrand, whose gestural approach deserves renewed attention; and the Canadian artist Marcelle Ferron who, in parallel with Riopelle’s explorations, forged a singular conception of the all-over. A masterful piece by Toshimitsu Imai, a member of the Parisian avant-garde linked to Michel Tapié, also recalls the international dimension of this current and its fertile dialogue with Asia.

Finally, the exhibition extends into the following decades with Hans Hartung, Judith Reigl, and Olivier Debré, bearing witness to the vitality and evolution of abstraction into the 1980s.

By retracing this artistic adventure, Moderne Art Fair and Galerie Artisyou offer both a historical and sensitive reading of French postwar abstraction—a current that redefined modern painting and whose influence can still be felt in contemporary creation.

CONTACT :
GALERIE ARTISYOU & COMPARATIVE
10 rue des Beaux-Arts, 75006 paris
Tél : +33 6 21 05 52 32
olivier.habib@galeriecomparative.com
www.galeriecomparative.com

Camille Bryen
Courtesy Galerie Artisyou

Huguette Arthur-Bertrand
Courtesy Galerie Artisyou

Olivier Debré
Courtesy Galerie Artisyou

Alberto Magnelli
Courtesy Galerie Artisyou