Ceysson & Bénétière

The Fernet-Branca Foundation invites you to discover an exhibition dedicated to the work of Jean Messagier, one of the most unique and influential painters of his generation, with a pictorial universe that is deeply personal and intimate. His work is among the most significant in the history of modern art and abstract painting in the second half of the 20th century. 

This exhibition, featuring over one hundred and ten works, traces his journey by moving backward through time: starting from his later works, which seem to give precedence to form, where the entirety of his life’s work as a painter, his story, and his stories crystallize into sumptuous accomplishments, to the works from his early years where the defining characteristics of his art, which culminated in the absolute abstraction he sought by the late 1960s, were first established. 

We have deliberately made only brief references to the surprising works of the 1970s and 1980s, which have been the subject of recent presentations.