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Jean Fautrier was a painter that defied classification, whose style bordered on the edges of Abstraction, Surrealism and Cubism. He has been compared with artist Alberto Giacometti, but truly was an artist in a league of his own. Essentially, Fautrier is known as one of the founders of “informal art” and also as one of France’s greatest painters of post-war themes.

Raised in London, Fautrier would attend the Royal Academy of Art as well as the Slade School of Art and eventually moved to Paris. Fautrier found this formal teaching too restrictive, however, and went off to create a style of his own. Fautrier was not just a painter, but a sculptor, illustrator and printer as well.

He had his first solo exhibition in 1924 at the Galerie Visconti. It was here that critics began to take notice of the young Fautrier and he gained a reputation for himself that would last his entire career.

Fautrier left Paris during World War II but returned after the war to begin painting again. Fautrier is probably best known for his painting series “Otages” (which means “Hostages”) that serve as a remembrance of the horrors of World War II. This series was well received at his 1945 exhibition and continue to be his leading trademark.

Besides being a painter, Fautrier also worked as a ski instructor as well as in the hotel and night club industry in the French Alps in the 1930’s. Hard times forced him to quit painting in the 1930s, so he supported himself any way he could. It would be a rare treat to find artwork created by Fautrier during this downtrodden time.

Fautrier gained a great deal of notoriety as a painter early on and remained in the public eye until the end of his life. However, Fautrier’s success was mainly celebrated in France, and he was little known abroad. He won a number of awards like the Grand Prix International in 1961, and was the guest of honor at the 1960 Venice Biennial.