Jean-Robert Arnaud

Jean-Robert Arnaud (1921–1987) was a French gallerist of Algerian origin and the founder of Galerie Arnaud, which operated in Paris from 1951 to 1966. Prior to opening the gallery, he ran a bookshop in Paris with his partner, the artist John-Franklin Koenig. He initially opened Galerie Arnaud in the basement of the bookshop at 34 rue du Four, later relocating the gallery to a more prominent space on rue du Four, in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés.

Arnaud and Koenig conceived the gallery as a platform for a new generation of artists engaged with experimental abstract languages.The gallery became an important venue for postwar abstraction, presenting both emerging and established artists working in non-figurative and experimental modes.

In 1953, Arnaud launched Cimaise, an ambitious and forward-looking periodical that positioned itself as a platform for artists and critics working beyond established national schools and stylistic orthodoxies. The journal focused on emergent abstract practices circulating between France, the United States, and other European contexts. Initially bilingual (French and English) between 1955 and 1959, it expanded from 1959 to 1963 to appear in four languages—adding Spanish and German—before returning to a bilingual format in 1963.

Its editorial board brought together a heterogeneous group of critics and writers, including Arnaud, Koenig, Michel Ragon, Herta Wescher, Roger van Gindertael, and Julien Alvard, underscoring the extent to which American artists were participating in the formation of Parisian critical discourse.