FOURNIER COLLECTION
ROOM 48
The personality of Jean Fournier (1922-2006) figures prominently in the list of illustrious donors who made the collection of the Fabre museum, supplemented by his gallery and his relatives. In 1954, this art lover opened a bookstore at 24, avenue Kléber in Paris which would soon be expanded by a gallery. Although he initially exhibited artists who evolved in the wake of surrealism, it quickly distinguished itself by the simultaneous presentation of French and American artists, the latter being little shown in France at the time. Fournier's taste has been structured over the decades around the figure of Simon Hantaï (1922-2008) and the legacy left by Henri Matisse to younger generations. It defines a third way within abstraction on the crest line which separates expressive lyricism from strict geometry.