Jean Frémon


Jean Frémon is a French gallerist and writer. His written work spans and fuses genres, and contributed importantly to a trans-genre tendency in contemporary French letters. Working principally in the modes of ekphrasis, art criticism, literary commentary, narrative, and poetry, Frémon is perhaps unique in his fusion of late 20th century experimentalisms with the deeply rooted French tradition of belles lettres.
After taking a degree in law, Frémon joined the Galerie Maeght, well known for representing important early and mid-20th century artists such as Joan Miró, Marc Chagall, Henry Matisse, and Alexander Calder. After the death of its founder, Aimé Maeght, in 1981, Frémon, along with Daniel Lelong and Jacques Dupin, founded the Galerie Lelong, which continued and extended the work of the Galerie Maeght in its same location at 13 rue de Téhéran in the 8th arrondisement in Paris.
Galerie Lelong, of which Frémon is now the president, also has a branch in the Chelsea district of New York and participates in all the principal annual international art fairs including Art Basel, Art Basel Miami, and FIAC Paris. Artists shown by the gallery include Etel Adnan, Pierre Alechinsky, Francis Bacon, Louise Bourgeois, Nicola De Maria, Jan Dibbets, Günther Förg, Andy Goldsworthy, David Hockney, Donald Judd, Konrad Klapheck, Jannis Kounellis, Wolfgang Laib, Nalini Malani, Ana Mendieta, David Nash, Jaume Plensa, Arnulf Rainer, Robert Ryman, Antonio Saura, Sean Scully, Richard Serra, Kiki Smith, Nancy Spero, Antoni Tapies, Barthélémy Toguo, and Juan Uslé.

The Work

Early in his writing career, Frémon became associated with the experimental developments represented by the independent publisher Paul Otchakovsky-Laurens and his publishing house, P.O.L, which still publishes much of his work. Frémon has also published with presses dedicated to artists books and artist-writer collaborations, such as Fata Morgana and L’Échoppe, and larger literary houses including Gallimard, Flammarion, and Éditions du Seuil. His writings span a variety of genres, including poetry, novels, and creative non-fiction.
He has also developed a hybrid genre of art-historical fictional essays, in which he takes artists from the Renaissance to the present as characters and through them explores artists, artworks, and their social and political contexts. He has done book-length works in this vein on Robert Ryman, Louise Bourgeois, and Antoni Tapies, as well as countless shorter works collected in his volumes La Vraie nature des ombres, Gloire des formes, and Rue du Regard. He has also addressed the work of other writers, such as Marcel Proust, Robert Walser, Samuel Beckett, and Michel Leiris in homages stretched by imagination. Since 1969, he has published over twenty volumes as well as many catalogue articles and critical essays on contemporary artists.
His work has been translated into English, Spanish, and German, and he has translated two books by David Sylvester, one on Alberto Giacometti and one on Francis Bacon, both published by André Dimanche.