Image: Galerie Ary Jan, Paris
Galerie Ary Jan is highlighting Jean-Pierre Cassigneul in a Saint-Tropez exhibition that will run from 9 July to 15 August 2026 at Salle Jean Despas, Place des Lices. The presentation gathers work by the artist around the themes that have long defined his practice: feminine elegance, color, texture and the harmony of forms.
Born in 1935, Cassigneul developed what the gallery describes as a distinctive artistic universe at a time when abstraction had become the dominant language of painting. He remained faithful to the human figure and built an image-world centered on contemplative women, gardens and flowers. The source material links that approach to the coloristic vitality of the Fauves and the decorative sensibility of the Nabis, two references that help frame the artist’s pictorial language without reducing it to simple historical imitation.
The Saint-Tropez presentation also emphasizes the way Cassigneul’s work departs from portraiture as psychological description. Rather than attempting to reproduce reality, his paintings are said to create atmospheres and emotions. In the gallery’s account, color does not describe the visible world so much as generate mood, while the artist’s handling of form and texture gives his figures a refined, timeless presence. That emphasis on decorative intensity and compositional restraint has been central to the way his work has been received.
A particular thread in the exhibition is Cassigneul’s relationship to Japan. The source material notes that his paintings found an early and lasting resonance there and that he visited the country on numerous occasions. This appreciation is associated with the refinement of his compositions, the restraint of certain viewpoints and his sensitivity to decorative motifs. The gallery also points to works painted in Tokyo in 1969 as evidence of that dialogue with Japanese culture.
Three of the works cited in the material are 'Le Kimono rose', 'Profil' and 'Se voir dans un regard'. Together they are presented as examples of the range within Cassigneul’s language: one painting reflects the artist’s engagement with Japanese culture directly through its Tokyo origin; another reduces the composition to a few essential lines; and a third expands into a denser orchestration of flowers, leaves and sumptuous fabrics. Across them, the artist’s signature approach remains consistent, with color and pattern shaping the emotional field of the image.
Galerie Ary Jan’s online announcement places the Cassigneul presentation within its wider Saint-Tropez summer programme under the heading 'Saint-Tropez Fine Art 2026'. The gallery’s website lists the exhibition at Salle Jean Despas on Place des Lices and gives daily opening hours from 10:00 to 13:30 and from 17:30 to 23:30. The notice identifies the run as 9 July to 15 August 2026, with the display bringing together the artist’s elegant women, floral settings and Japan-related works in one public presentation.
