Heir of Goya and Abstract Expressionism, the painting of Roger-Edgar Gillet finally rediscovered in an unprecedented retrospective

A major retrospective at the Musée Estrine in Saint-Rémy-de-Provence finally brings long-overdue recognition to French painter Roger-Edgar Gillet (1924–2004), an artist who emerged from the post-war abstraction scene of the Nouvelle École de Paris but later forged a singular figurative style blending Goya, Delacroix, and Northern grotesque traditions. The exhibition follows two important donations—to the Centre Pompidou in 2017 and the Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes in 2022—that helped revive institutional interest in Gillet, whose work had been marginalized since the 1960s.

This rediscovery matters because Gillet represents a vital counter-narrative to the dominant histories of 20th-century art, which often sidelined French abstraction and its later figurative turn. His ability to merge abstract expressionist energy with a deeply humanist, sometimes grotesque figuration challenges conventional art-historical categories. The retrospective not only corrects a blind spot in French art history but also invites contemporary audiences to reconsider how we look at painting—with the same critical seriousness Gillet himself demanded when comparing his work to Goya's.