Jean LEPPIEN (after) - Abstract composition, 1952 - Stencil in gouache colours

Stencil : The stencil is a printing technique made using a cover (in zinc for example) that prevents paint or ink from flowing. The stencil is then applied to the printed proof by etching, lithography, screen printing or phototyping. Many stencils must be traced and cut to obtain an accurate reproduction of the work.
Jean Leppien : (1910-1991) is a french artist of german origin, associated to the Bauhaus movement. He was born in 1910 in Lüneburg, as Kurt Leppien, and was a student of Josef Albers, Wassily Kandinsky and Joost Schmidt, and knew Paul Klee. When the nazi regime nominated Mies van der Rohe as the Bauhaus director, he left to Berlin, and started training with photography with László Moholy-Nagy. He was a member of the communist party. He left Germany in 1933 to go to Paris and changed his name to « Jean ». He survived of small jobs, and had no time for artistic creation. He enrolled in 1939 in foreign legion, and then resistance before being arrested. He was sentenced and imprisonned in the Bruchsal fortress. He was freed in 1944, and came back to Suzanne, his wife, who survived deportation. Starting from 1946, he regularly exhibited at the Salon des Réalités Nouvelles.