After the Second World War a school of radical thought became centralized in Paris from which a new generation of artists emerged, known as the Jeune École de Paris. These artists gravitated to the newly liberated “City of Lights” from all over Europe. The vibrant and provocative nature of their work reflected the turmoil of this post-war society which sought a new language and aesthetics that would provide expression to their loss of faith in the traditional values of the preceding generations.

Against this background of a post war society Jacques Germain developed his own unique avant-garde signature style of painting based on the theory of “lyricism” which attempted to find and to express the “profound meaning of nature”. Germain believed that within the natural world a tune or rhythm existed, and he wished to explore the expression of this theory in his paintings.

The expression of this theory is revealed in Composition 1989, a stunning example of Germain’s mature work. On this black canvas Jacques Germain created a waterfall of vivid blue, red, and white rectangular shapes defined by quickly applied strokes to create a vibrant surface bursting beyond the veritable confines of the painting. Many of these rectangular forms which form the “core” of the canvas are seemingly ignited and explode. They enliven and electrify the picture, a personal technique of Germain’s which heightened the expression of the work and created a most intense design flow. As all is not chaos in nature, the same holds true for Germain’s works which have patterns, textures, and rhythms that contribute to this physical sense of movement radiating from the composition which is unencumbered by any pre-conceived formulas. These lively charged depictions of small intense rectangular surfaces coupled with the quick arcs and rapidly applied strokes would become Germain’s signature style of fluid, lyrical painting and would help to establish him as one of the leading post-war painters.

Jacques Germain was an internationally acclaimed abstract painter of the post-war School of Paris. As a young art student he worked with Fernand Léger at the Académie Moderne (1931) and at the Bauhaus in 1932 with Wassily Kandinsky whom many historians credit with the birth of abstraction. After having developed his artistic talent for several years Germain was forced to join the French Army when France declared war on Germany in 1939. Even though France surrendered to Germany in June of 1940, Germain remained a prisoner of war until the end of the war in 1945. Upon his return to France Germain had a premier exhibition of his work at the Salon des Surindépendants in 1947.

After an initial brief figurative period Germain soon began to explore abstraction which seemed more “natural” to him. At the outset his abstractions were geometric in conception and execution but soon he joined The Abstraction Lyrique group with Mireille Mathieu, Camille Bryen, Jean-Paul Riopelle, and Andre Lanskoy, who formed the European equivalent to the American Abstract Expressionists. Their art was no longer limited by any geometric standards. At last Germain was unencumbered by any pre-conceived formulas and enjoyed the freedom to paint with a greater and heightened expression and a more intense fluidity. It was through this “lyricism” that Jacques Germain attempted to find and to express the “profound meaning of nature”. He believed that within the natural world a tune or rhythm existed, and he wished to explore the expression of this theory in his paintings. Jacques Germain achieved international status in the 1950's and was featured in contemporary art exhibitions around the world until his recent death in 2001.