Jacques Hérold

About

Jacques Hérold (1910–1987) was a Franco-Romanian painter, printmaker, illustrator, and sculptor born as Hérold Blumer in Piatra Neamț, Romania, into a Jewish family.[1][4] He spent much of his childhood in Galați before studying at the School of Fine Arts in Bucharest from 1925 to 1929, which he abandoned to pursue avant-garde art after discovering the publication 75HP.[1][2] In 1930, he moved to Paris and changed his name using a fake ID, becoming close to Constantin Brâncuși, for whom he worked as an assistant.[1] Hérold officially joined André Breton's Surrealist group in 1934 and became known for his figurative style depicting fantastical creatures and hybrid insect-animals in ambiguous, imagined worlds.[1] During World War II, he fled to Villa Air-Bel in Marseille, where he co-designed the Jeu de Marseille, a Surrealist reimagining of the Tarot de Marseille, alongside Breton, Victor Brauner, and Max Ernst.[1][5] He had his first solo exhibition in 1947 and subsequently featured in all major Surrealist exhibitions.[1] After leaving the Surrealist group in 1951, Hérold's style became increasingly abstract and is retrospectively associated with Lyrical Abstraction and Tachisme.[1][4] He studied printmaking at Stanley William Hayter's Atelier 17 and produced illustrations and covers for over eighty books by renowned authors including Tristan Tzara, Francis Ponge, and the Marquis de Sade.[1][2] His work is held in major international collections including MoMA, the National Gallery of Art in Washington, and the Centre Pompidou.[2]

Surrealism (1934–1951), transitioning to Lyrical Abstraction and Tachisme (1950s onwards). Known for figurative works depicting fantastical creatures and hybrid insect-animals in imagined worlds, later evolving toward abstraction and collage.