Galerie Arnaud

Galerie Arnaud was a Paris-based gallery directed by Jean-Robert Arnaud, active in the Saint-Germain-des-Prés district during the postwar period. The gallery originated when, Ellsworth Kelly and Jack Youngerman persuaded Arnaud and his partner John-Franklin Koenig to convert a basement of Arnaud’s bookshop on the little-known rue du Regard into an exhibition space, which later became known as Galerie Arnaud.

However, the passersby in that area were not part of an art-oriented public, but rather, as noted, “widows and religious women,” prompting Arnaud to seek a more suitable location. In early 1950, he succeeded in relocating the gallery to a former bougnat / bistrot on rue du Four, in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés. The new space included a relatively large cellar with grimy walls, previously used for storing coal, wood, and wine.

One of the gallery’s first clients and close associates was Richard Seaver, a friend of both Youngerman and Kelly. The gallery inaugurated its programme with a solo exhibition by Youngerman. Shortly thereafter, from late April to early May 1951, Kelly held his first solo exhibition in Paris at the gallery, marking a significant early moment in his career. Beauford Delaney, part of the same expatriate artistic community, also exhibited at the gallery in the late 1950s.

The gallery played an important role in promoting abstraction in Paris, particularly gestural and Tachiste painting. It was described as “one of the best Parisian galleries specializing in abstract painting,” presenting “young painters of many different nationalities.”