Timeline

Jacques Germain was a prominent member of the Abstraction Lyrique group in post-war Paris, with Georges Matheiu, Vieira da Silva, and Riopelle.

As a young artist he worked under Léger at the Académie Moderne in 1931 and Kandinsky at the Bauhaus in 1932. But it wasn’t until after the war that Germain first exhibited his work, at the Salon des Surindépendants of 1947. Painting with heightened gestural expression, Germain developed the powerful resonant style for which he is renowned.

By 1948 Germain was already becoming associated with the leading avant-garde, exhibiting with Arp, Bryen, Fautrier, Hartung, Mathieu, Picabia, Tapies and Wols in ‘Blanc et Noir’, at Galerie des Deux Iles, in Paris. In 1949 he held an exhibition with Soulages at Atelier de Maywald; and at the same venue in 1951 with Bauer, Sonia Delaunay, Hartung, Kandinsky, Magnelli, Soulages and da Silva. Establishing a reputation he went on to hold regular solo shows at galleries Maeght, Pierre, Michel Warren, Kriegel, André Schoeller, Jacques Massol and Dina Vierny. He also participated in many museum shows in France and abroad, notably ‘Le Mouvement dans l’art Contemporain’, Musée de Lausanne, 1955; ‘Carnegie Prize’, Pittsburgh USA, 1955; ‘Exposition Internationale de l’Art Abstrait’, Paris, 1957; ‘Ecole de Paris’, Mannheim, 1959; ‘International Modern Art’, Dublin, 1962; ‘Ecole de Paris’, Cologne, 1962. Recent retrospectives have been held at the Couvent des Cordeliers, France, 1997; and Hanina Fine Arts, London, 2005.

The artist’s work is represented in several museums including the Musée National d’Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville, Paris; also in Lille; Bremen; Bergen; Lausanne; and Oslo.