Léon Degand

Léon Degand  (1907–1958) was a Belgian writer and art critic associated with the promotion of abstract art in the postwar period. He moved to Paris in 1944 and soon began writing a regular column on art criticism for the journal Les Lettres françaises, where he defended non-figurative art and contributed to debates surrounding abstraction. His writings on the subject were later published in book form in 1947.

He later collaborated regularly with the journal Art d’Aujourd’hui, founded in 1949 by André Bloc, and eventually became its editor-in-chief. Degand was also active within the circle of artists associated with the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles and served as director of Galerie Denise René in the late 1940s, a key center for the promotion of non-figurative art.