Jean Hélion, born in Couterne in 1904, was one of the pioneers of abstraction in France before boldly returning to figuration.

Co-founder of the Abstraction-Création group in the 1930s, he developed a rigorous language based on geometry and color.

Taken prisoner during the war, he returned profoundly changed and decided to paint reality: passersby, streets, ordinary objects. This return to the figure, far from being a betrayal, became an act of freedom.

His clear and meditative painting reflects the reconciliation between the visible and thought. Hélion died in 1987, leaving behind a pivotal body of work, both poetic and philosophical, situated between abstraction and humanism.