While browsing through the correspondence addressed to Georges Folmer (1921-1966), we are captivated by that of Jean Gorin (1899-1981) to his friend in June 1959: "It seems that you have met an art critic who is interested in geometric art. That's quite an event these days!".

In 1961, the Groupe Mesure was founded, a name chosen by Georges Folmer. His idea was to bring together geometric abstract artists from the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles. It was also a form of resistance against the limited space given to geometric abstraction in France; for example, the Groupe Mesure had only one exhibition in France, at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rennes in March 1961, compared to eight in Germany between 1962 and 1965. These artists were committed to reviving the spirit of the Bauhaus, the application of art to everyday life.

This first exhibition already included works by members of the Mesure group committee: Georges Folmer, Jean Gorin, Pierre-Martin Gueret, Roger-François Thépot, Léo Breuer, and Luc Peire. These were joined by works from artists who spontaneously responded to Folmer's request, such as Marcelle Cahn, Günter Fruhtrunk, and Aurélie Nemours, among others. The exhibition featured a total of 17 participants. At the curator's request, and to signify the influence of the Mesure group, a tribute was paid to Auguste Herbin (1882-1960) and Frantisek Kupka (1871-1957).

Georges Folmer, a fervent advocate of geometric art, rightly made it a point of honor to demonstrate the importance of geometric abstraction and its application in our daily lives. Here is what he wrote in June 1961 during the presentation of the Groupe Mesure at the Frankfurt exhibition: “By seeking to take its place, through tradition as much as opportunity, Geometric and Formal Constructive Art comes into contact with practical reality. It proposes solutions which, while retaining the character inherent to their functions, give the elements present an appearance, an artistic direction specially studied and appropriate to these elements.”
It seems important to us, within the gallery, to continue to give visibility to this trend by sometimes revisiting historical events, but also to show that it continues to progress today with the works produced by our contemporary artists.

We will offer a non-exhaustive presentation of works by artists who participated in the Groupe Mesure events, such as Marcelle Cahn, Georges Folmer, Günter Fruhtrunk, Jean Gorin, Bernard Lassus, Aurélie Nemours, and Roger-François Thépot. We will also present some works by our contemporary artists, notably Jean-François Dubreuil, whose monograph has just been published.