Jean Michel Folon

Jean-Michel Folon was born in Belgium in 1934 and attended architecture school, but abandoned that career in the 1960s and moved to New York and then Paris to work on his art. He quickly distinguished himself as a talented illustrator and was known for watercolor paintings that featured wide gradations of colour and recurring symbolic figures with simple outlines. Two of the most frequent motifs in his work were a featureless, hat-wearing man with glowing eyes in a deserted urban landscape, and a bird alighting from an outstretched hand.

While he produced a large body of work in many mediums, such as watercolour, silkscreen, sculpture and glass, Folon is best remembered for his iconic posters and his animations for French television. Towards the end of his career, he moved to Monaco and devoted himself to sculpture and designing stamps and posters for Amnesty International and other human rights groups.

Posters by Jean Michel Folon