Hélion, Jean

2 autograph letters and 4 typescript letters signed ("Hélion"), 7 pages of the movie script with autograph corrections, 5 autograph letters and postcards signed by Pegeen and Jean Hélion, both in French and in English; envelopes, telegrams and copies of the letters from Thomas and Diane Bouchard to the Hélion.

The Estate of Diane Bouchard.

To Jean Hélion, the project of a Bouchard documentary is a perfect opportunity to show and promote his recent work. The correspondence shows his involvment in the post-production. He gives advise on the form of the movie.

The result suits him and the first showings he organized in France are successful.
Once the film is done, the correspondence carries on and Helion confides to Bouchard, giving him news of the artistic scene of Paris Giacometti and Baltus (“the best and most independent”), Masson (“very brilliant, somewhat disturbing”), Leger and the mosaic for the outside of the church of the Plateau d'Assy (“quite funny for a newly converted communist.”), Braque (“qui commen(ce) à sortir de sa joliesse”), Miró (“plus parfait que jamais, plus beau, plus réussi, mais tellement fait pour le musée, si situé déjà dans l’histoire”)… He also tells him about his show, describing his paintings "Three nudes" and "A Rebours". In June 1950, he sent a letter explaining extensively his art: ("mon but n’est pas tout simplement de peindre le monde tel qu’il semble être, mais de découvrir la coïncidence entre l’homme tel qu’il est vraiment et le monde tel qu’il lui semble à lui"). For a book about him, he asks Bouchard for a picture of his painting "L'Homme au front rouge" which he gave to Bouchard. 

TLS 12/05/1946. Back to Paris as if they never left. He’s seen Leger who is very successful and had a splendid show at Carré “nothing of the last figurative period was shown. The fashion, here is still on abstraction”.
Compares France/Paris with US: “ The French are as gentle as ever – the garcon de café sneers a little at his bottle, before giving you a mediocre shot of aperitif […] (People) are still sitting peacefully in magnificent squares […] I am beginning to draw a lot. These people, who carry their life and their emotions on their faces seem so beautiful, after the poker faced Anglo-Saxon. Yet America is a good souvenir, far away already. We have been happy there, but it was always with the hope to go, someday. […] no doubt that my work will be affected by my feeling”

TLS 13/12/1946. Critiques of the film, he gives details of what should be done and then explains his general view: “It is principally a matter not of changing the order of anything, nor actually taking out much, but clarifying the rhythm, bringing it out.”

TLS. 23/05/1947. Film is showing around through the association “Les Amis de L’Art”, and has great success. “ It is well received and looks like a very revolutionary piece, because the audiences are often crowded with youngsters and old maids who have just discovered abstraction, or surrealism, and at first are quite shocked. […] Meyer Shapiro, Howard Kaplan, Ted Schempp were in the room and will tell you someday how it looked”. Writes about his show: The two main pictures, about the size of the Reveurs are: three nudes (2 nudes sitting at a round table, clutching their arms, and a third nude in a window, holding an umbrella like a dome; very dramatic), and “A Rebours”, a composition including on the left, an abstract painting of mine 1933, on easel, in a show window; on the right, in an ordinary French window, a nude completely reversed, and very pathetic. Between the two, a man, standing, full, holding his hands so as to form a sort of cave, very obvious, in the center of himself. It is very bright in colour, and intense. It is very bright in colour, and intense. The gesture of the abstraction, that of the man’s arms, and that of the woman’s legs are alike in their essence, that one cannot possibly say if the abstraction is the essence of the nude, or if the nude has sprung out of the abstraction. […]Could you make a photo of L’Homme au front rouge that belong to Thomas, and the broken plaster and shoe that belong to Diane […] There is a man, quite a marvelous man named Bruguiere, a Judge by profession, who is writing a very complete book about what I have done” […] askes about Miro and the film about him and about Kurt and Arlette and others artists: “The best and most independent that I see, of my generation, are Giacometti and Baltus. Masson just had a show, very brilliant, somewhat disturbing, and I believe the best he ever had”. Leger has a command to do a mosaic for the outside of the church of a small village: “a job for which he is beautifully fitted, except as to the religious perhaps, and all of that is quite funny for a newly converted communist.”

TLS, 21/06/1950 – Very interesting letter, in French, about his work, his feeling about it, his bitterness against dealers, his opinion about exhibition by Leger, Miro, Braque, calder…
Pegeen in Venise with Peggy who’s showing his collection – His work won’t be shown in the USA. He’s ready but the dealers aren’t even if young artists are waiting for it – “Rosenberg m’a parfaitement laisse tomber. Mais je crois qu’avant in an ou deux, l’interet reprendra, et je ne me tourment pas pour les questions de cimaise”.
He’s happy with what he’s done and the meaning of his art : « Je voudrais bien te montrer mon travail des trois dernières années: des homes, assis, debout, couchés; des femmes, de même =; des natures mortes; des paysages – et puis toutes ses figures réunies; mais avec une technique bien plus souple, et des moyens bien moins systématiques qu’auparavant: plus sensibles, plus libres et plus susceptibles, cependant, de suivre la réalité tout en suivant l’idée. Car mon but n’est pas tout simplement de peindre le monde tel qu’il semble être, mais de découvrir la coïncidence entre l’homme tel qu’il est vraiment et le monde tel qu’il lui semble à lui. Et cela se passe très près de tout ce que chacun pourrait voir, mais avec un intervalle pourtant, qui est celui parle lequel la pensée et la lumière s’engouffrent. […]je vois revenir dans mon atelier des gens que l’image de l’homme en avait chasses et qui, trois ans plus tard, voyant que ça dure, sortent timidement de leurs terriers à succès, et montrent à nouveau un museau inquiet. Parce que tout le monde sait bien que les éclaboussures de palettes, les grands et les petits zigzags, les petites histoires extraordinaires, les grands tableaux vides et les petits tableaux torturés et précieux – ou même la petite soupe réaliste assaisonnée de touches rapides, tout ça, dont est fait aujourd’hui le succès ca branle, ca hoquète, c’est déjà crevé et c’est parce que c’est soigneusement entoure dans des billets de banques et des sourires de marchands, et de critiques (tic tic tic), qu’on ne sent pas la misérable puanteur qui s’en dégage.
Il y a eu cette année une belle, émouvante exposition Braque, qui commença à sortir de sa joliesse. Une belle exposition rétrospective Léger, qui aurait dû être plus complète. Une belle exposition Miro – plus parfaite que jamais, plus beau, plus réussi, mais tellement fait pour le musée, si situé déjà dans l’histoire… »

 Postcard, s.d. + ALS – 4 pages to Diane and Thomas. Wants the film his show at Renou et Colle in October – very large list of names to invit to the premiere of the film. Working on Nudes even if so many already painted (Matisse)… 

ALS from Pegeen to Diane – Resting in Tours (?), France. Very anxious to see the film – “it’s like a dream far away

ALS from Pegeen to Diane, [feb 1947] – just after WWII – food not hard to find any more if you try hard enough. The film was shown in Tours and in Switzerland with great success. Jean has been working very hard, and made a very big beautiful painting – the best thing he has ever done, we both think. They see Leger, once in a while. She’s pregnant.

Postcard, 29/11/70, to Diane. Exhibition of 112 of his paintings at the Grand Palais.

Postcard to Diane, s.d. [1947]. The Miro film sounds wonderful. JH and Pegeen just had the first child Fabrice and Diane wants to send them a birth gift – “a little stripped, something very American looking shirt would be such fun”.

Postcard to Diane and Thomas. About a showing of the film with the Matisse movie and a commercial documentary. Great success, 150 people – no objection by the public about the length […] the colour is always admired, so is the music”.