An "Ariel" view of Post-War Paris

Celebrating the influential "Situation" series of exhibitions at Galerie Ariel in 1950s Paris, reuniting participating artists and archive material.

In 1952 the fledgling collector Jean Pollak heard that one of his favourite galleries was to be sold and was persuaded by the artists to acquire it, a moment of chance that proved the catalyst for an influential fifty year career championing young artists alongside the likes of Jean Dubuffet, Hans Hartung and Vieira da Silva.

Located opposite Galerie Louis Carré and next to Galerie Maeght on avenue de Messine, Galerie Ariel quickly established its own reputation for showing up-and-coming artists, launching in 1953 an influential series of group shows curated by critic Roger Van Gindertael titled “Situation (de la Peinture d’Aujourd’hui)”, with a second in 1954, and third in 1958.

Coming from a Viennese family of antique dealers who lost everything in the war, Pollak moved to France and studied art history in Paris, but it was during a year in New York for a Medieval Art course in 1949, that a friend asked him to interview Brancusi, which proved a transformational meeting that ignited Pollak’s passion for Modern Art, and resulted in him negotiating the sale of a Brancusi work to a Swiss museum. On his return to Paris he began collecting small pieces by Kandinsky, Gleizes and Metzinger, as well as Hartung and Doucet, and this lead to the fortuitous discovery of Galerie Ariel, which would become his own.

Renowned not only for his discerning eye, but also his generous and supportive character, Pollak regularly held weekend long parties, once famously involving two thousand oysters and thirty Camemberts. In 1964 he expanded his gallery to boulevard Haussman, and was joined by Michelle Orlando in 1967. After his long successful career he finally agreed to sell his personal collection in 2011, following which somewhat poignantly his health declined, and he died the following year. As well as his remarkable legacy, Pollak left an extraordinary archive meticulously documenting over ten thousand artworks. In his obituary the Figaro described him as “one of the greatest art dealers of the second half of the 20th century”.

In homage to Galerie Ariel and its championing of young artists, HFA reunites a selection of those artists who became established with Pollak’s support through his gallery and his personal collection, including Camille Bryen, Jacques Busse, Youla Chapoval, Jean Deyrolle, Pierre Dmitrienko, Henri Goetz, Jean Le Moal, Maryan, James Pichette, Marcel Pouget, and Gustave Singier.