Galerie Jean Fournier
Galerie Jean Fournier (1957–2024) was a Paris gallery founded by Jean Fournier, who began exhibiting paintings in his bookshop (av. Kléber) after meeting the Hungarian émigré artist Simon Hantaï. In 1957, he offered Jean-Paul Riopelle an exhibition. Riopelle, in turn, introduced the dealer to his friends.
“Colour was to become the art dealer’s founding principle, and it remained so until his death in 2006. Fournier’s artists had their own methods and goals, but they were united, he said, by the question of how colour cuts through the space on the canvas.”
By 1964, Fournier had his own gallery on rue du Bac, where he tirelessly advocated the artists’ lyrical abstractions. “If Paris gave the painters ‘conception and style’, said Shirley Jaffe, Fournier saw how they filtered their urban North American palette through a Mediterranean dazzle.”
The gallery exhibited emerging artists of the postwar Paris art scene, including Sam Francis, Shirley Jaffe, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Hantaï, and Joan Mitchell. The gallery remained active through the late twentieth century and continued after Fournier’s death in 2006. The gallery closed its doors after 67 years of operation.
The gallery exhibited artists including Joan Mitchell, Sam Francis, and Hantaï and Mitchell. The gallery remained active through the late twentieth century and continued after Fournier’s death in 2006.
Exhibitions & Events
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Jean-Paul Riopelle
The exhibition marked a pivotal moment in Jean-Paul Riopelle’s career in Paris. -
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Inauguration exhibition, Novermber 1964
The landmark exhibition showcased abstract art, featuring key artists such as Sam Francis, Simon Hantaï, and Joan Mitchell, Jean-Paul Riopelle and others. -
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Jean-Paul Riopelle
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Joan Mitchel, May 18th - June 17th 1967
The first solo exhibition at Galerie Jean Fournier -
