Artists

Jacques Yankel

French, 1920-2004

French painter, graphic artist, sculptor and scientist, Jacques Yankel was the son of the painter Michel Kikoïne (1892-1968) and lived as a child in the artists' colony La Ruche in Paris. When he just had started to study at the École des Arts Appliqués in Paris, he had to flee to Southern France with his family. They moved to Toulouse, where Jacques studied geology at the Faculté des Sciences.

After 1945 he worked for a while for the French government as a geologist in Western Africa. From about 1950, he worked more and more as an artist. In 1952 he moved to Paris and he had his first exhibitions in Paris and Mulhouse.

From 1955 he focused increasingly on being an artist. He received - together with Réginald Pollack (1924-2001) -  the 'Prix Neumann', and other awards and many exhibitions - at home and abroad - followed.

Jacques Yankel was one of the main representatives of the French Expressionism in the 50s, after 1960 he became more and more one of the abstract Expressionism.