Jean Michel Folon

JEAN MICHEL FOLON (Belgium, 1934 – Monaco, 2005).
“Pluies de Nueva York,” 1984.
Four prints on paper. Copies 35/99.
Signed and numbered.
Measurements: 38 x 30 cm (plates for three of them); 65.5 x 51 cm (paper size for three of them)/ 18 x 23 cm (plate size for one of them); 39.5 cm (height of the paper for one of them).

“Pluies de Nueva York,” created in 1984, belongs to one of Jean-Michel Folon’s most evocative series, dedicated to the poetic representation of the city. Through an atmosphere dominated by rain, architecture, and the presence of solitary figures, the artist transforms New York into a symbolic space where the urban landscape converges with his artistic vision of it.

A Belgian painter, illustrator, and sculptor, Jean-Michel Folon studied architecture at the Institut Saint-Luc in Brussels, and in 1969 he held his first solo exhibition of watercolors at the Lefebre Gallery in New York. The following year, he exhibited in Tokyo and Milan, and also participated in the Venice Biennale during those years. By then already fully recognized internationally, he took part in prominent events such as the 1973 São Paulo Biennial, where he won the Grand Prize for Painting. Throughout his career, Folon worked in various illustration techniques, as well as engraving, silkscreen printing, mosaics, and enameled glass. He also created numerous posters, many of them for humanitarian causes. Major museums have dedicated exhibitions to him, including the Musée des Arts Décoratifs in Paris (1971), the Boymans van Beuningen in Rotterdam (1976), the Institute of Contemporary Arts in London (1977), the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (1990), and the Bunkamura in Tokyo (1995), among others. His work is currently represented in public and private collections around the world.