In the run-up to the 80th anniversary of Galerie Dina Vierny, to be celebrated in January 2027, this exhibition pays tribute to Jean Fournier, a leading figure of the Parisian abstract art scene from 1964 to 2006, who passed away twenty years ago and whose gallery closed its doors for good in 2024. Bringing together a selection of works by artists he championed, the exhibition runs from 18 September to 10 November at our gallery at 53 Rue de Seine.

Nothing marked out this butcher's son from Rue Bonaparte as a future arbiter of taste in the art world of the second half of the twentieth century. A bookseller from 1945, he opened a bookshop-gallery on Avenue Kléber in 1954, where, the following year, he had a pivotal encounter with Simon Hantaï.

For over forty years, Fournier championed a demanding style of painting, in which colour and gesture became languages in their own right. He accompanied Hantaï through one of the most radical pictorial ventures of his time, introduced and championed Sam Francis, Joan Mitchell and Jean-Paul Riopelle in Paris, and supported Judit Reigl, Jean Degottex and Shirley Jaffe with the same conviction. From one side of the Atlantic to the other, his discerning eye brought together celebrated strands of art history and profoundly reshaped the face of post-war painting.

Bringing together many of his artists around Blue Figure (1960), Fournier's favourite painting, the exhibition captures the power and coherence of a vision that spanned half a century of painting. It runs alongside the exhibition the Musée d'Art Moderne de Paris is devoting, from 21 July 2026 to 4 January 2027, to Stéphane Bordarier — Fournier's last great discovery, whom Galerie Dina Vierny continues to represent today.


Artists : JAMES BISHOP, STÉPHANE BORDARIER, JEAN DEGOTTEX, SAM FRANCIS, SIMON HANTAÏ, SHIRLEY JAFFE, JOAN MITCHELL, JUDIT REIGL, JEAN-PAUL RIOPELLE, CLAUDE VIALLAT