Symphonie Vitale

Born in Algiers, painter Henry Valensi was a prominent figure of the French avant-garde at the turn of the twentieth century, leading a group of artists known as the Musicalistes (or Effusionists), who sought to express musical rhythm through abstract painting. Working between the 1930s and 1950s, the Musicalistes organized more than twenty exhibitions of their work in Paris, as well as several other group and solo exhibitions across Europe. As the epicenter of modern art in Europe during the early twentieth century, Paris offered Valensi a cohort of fellow abstractionists with whom he frequently exhibited. This group formed the collective Section d’Or in 1912, and included the artists Francis Picabia and Marcel Duchamp; they strongly influenced Valensi’s abstract, geometric style.