Jean Michel Atlan

Jean-Michel Atlan was born in Constantine, French Algeria, and moved to Paris in 1930, where he studied philosophy at the Sorbonne. An autodidact in painting, he began his artistic practice in 1941 during the German Occupation. Arrested in 1942 for his Judaism and political activism, he escaped deportation by pleading insanity and was interned at the Sainte-Anne asylum. In 1944 he published a small collection of poetry and shortly after held his first exhibition at Galerie Arc-en-Ciel. His early works, marked by expressive gestures and bold colors, reflected both personal struggle and the turbulent atmosphere of wartime Europe.

After the Liberation, Atlan quickly became part of the Parisian avant-garde. In 1946 he met Danish painter Asger Jorn and soon became associated with the CoBrA group, his studio serving as a hub for its members in Paris. Throughout the 1950s, he exhibited regularly, including a significant show at Galerie Carpenter in 1955, and created some of his most celebrated works such as La Kahena and Composition. His art, infused with mythological and symbolic references, combined primitivist influences with a deeply personal language of form and color. Atlan died prematurely in Paris in 1960 and is buried in Montparnasse Cemetery, leaving behind a legacy as one of the distinctive voices of postwar abstraction.