Marcel Jean
LES TRACES DE PAS

Galerie Boquet is pleased to present a solo exhibition dedicated to Marcel Jean (1900–1993), a member of the Surrealist group, art historian, and leading specialist of the movement.

Enriched with numerous archives and photographs, this exhibition brings together drawings, prints, paintings, and objects created between the 1920s and the 1980s, including rare and previously unseen works. In particular, we are presenting a series of décalcomanies and flottages (Surrealist techniques popularized by Marcel Jean), large-scale canvases from the 1970s, several dreamlike ink works on paper from 1935, and an assemblage object characteristic of Surrealist practice.

These works are accompanied by significant pieces by fellow Surrealists such as Remedios Varo, Oscar Domínguez, Georges Hugnet, and Yves Tanguy. All drawn from Marcel Jean’s personal collection, they shed light on the deep bonds between Marcel Jean and his Surrealist circle.

From the moment he met André Breton in 1932, Marcel Jean took part in all of the group's exhibitions and contributed to numerous periodicals and collective publications. As a historian of the movement, he authored several critical essays, including Histoire de la peinture surréaliste (1959), widely regarded as a definitive reference in Surrealist scholarship.

Accompanied by a catalogue, this exhibition offers a rare opportunity to rediscover the work of this artist, three of whose pieces were featured in the recent centenary exhibition Surréalisme at the Centre Pompidou.