Jaroslav Serpan

Jaroslav Serpan (1922–1976), real name Jaroslav Sossountzov, was a French painter, writer and scientist of Czech origin, a key representative of post-war European lyrical abstraction and informality.
In his work, reflecting his parallel academic education in the fields of biology and mathematical statistics at the Sorbonne in Paris, he developed a specific visual language based on structural order, set theory and stochastic processes. After an early collaboration with André Breton’s Parisian surrealist group (1946–1948), he established himself as an autonomous figure in abstract art, participating in key international exhibitions including Documenta II in Kassel (1959). Synthesizing exact scientific rationalism with expressive gesture, his work is represented in the world’s leading museum collections of modern art.

France, 1950, oil tempera on paper 40 x 55 cm, frame 41 x 61 cm, glass