Jean Deyrolle

Vocation

French abstract painter. His father, who was a military doctor, died when he was 13. His grandfather was a painter. In 1929, Jean Deyrolle entered the School of Art and Publicity in Paris. He started engraving and produced his first lithographs and linocuts. After obtaining his diploma, he started to paint and travels throughout Brittany, making studies of still-lives and painting the countryside. Having obtained a grant Jean Deyrolle left for Morocco, where thanks to some exhibitions of his work, he managed to stay for several years. He met up with his cousin and childhood friend, Jeannine Gilou, and met her companion Nicolas de Staël. He traveled with them, crossing the country, painting Moroccan themes. Jean Deyrolle came back to Concarneau, in 1938 and used his grandfather’s studio. The artist discovered the works of Paul Serusier. After he was demobilized in 1940, he often went to Chateauneuf-du-Faou to visit with Mime Serusier, and to study the paintings and writing of the theoretician of the School of Pont-Aven. In 1942 Jean Deyrolle moved to a studio in Paris on rue Daguerre, a studio where he was going to spend all of his time. He came under the influence of Braque and Roger de la Fresnaye. He often saw Nicolas and Jeannine de Staël, and through them, he met Andre Lanskoy. He pursued his research with determination. His meeting with Cesar Domela helped him little by little to liberate himself from figurative work. It was in 1944 that the artist turned toward abstraction; he became friends with Alberto Magnelli, who had a great spiritual impact on him. He then met Jeanne Bucher who bought his first non-figurative works. He participated in 1945 in the “Salon des Surindependents” and in the exhibition “Twenty years of Painting” at Jeanne Bucher’s gallery. The following year Deyrolle joinsed a group of abstract painters called the second generation who were founded around Denise Rene, but also with Dewasne, Marie Raymond, Schneider and Hartung. Soon Gilioli, Poliakoff and Vasarely joined them. Deyrolle converted a studio in the attic of a house near the ruins of Gordes. He spent a lot of time here, joined by his friends. The first solo exhibition of Jean Deyrolle was organized in 1948 at the Denise Rene Gallery in Paris. This was be the first in a long series of solo exhibitions for the artist both in France and abroad. Jean Deyrolle taught at the Academy Fernand Leger in 1953. It was during this period that the style of the artist, making his synthesis, freed himself. The first retrospective of the artist was organized in Brussels at the Palace of Fine Arts in 1956. Jean Deyrolle was from 1959 to 1967 teacher at the Academy of the Art schools of Munich. He worked with unremitting effort until his death. Sick, his health got worse in 1967. It was in this same year on 30 August that he died in Toulon, where he underwent treatment. (biography text from http://www.mchampetier.com/biography-Jean-Deyrolle.html) Link to Wikipedia (French)