A Brief History...

The PHASES movement was officially born in 1954 in Paris under the impetus of Édouard Jaguer, who launched the eponymous journal to extend the spirit of revolt found in previous short-lived publications such as Révolution la Nuit (1946) or Les Deux Sœurs. Conceived from the outset as an international network rather than a rigid school, the movement positioned itself at the crossroads of Surrealism (from which Jaguer temporarily distanced himself by rejecting André Breton's dogmatism) and Lyrical Abstraction. Since its foundation, the goal was to create a space of convergence for the global poetic and plastic avant-gardes, asserting total freedom against the academicism and the art market of the post-war era.

The movement's growth materialized through an incredible editorial momentum and a series of major exhibitions across Europe and the Americas throughout the 1950s and 1960s. The first major public confrontation took place as early as 1955 at the Galerie Kléber in Paris, followed by historical milestones abroad, notably the traveling exhibition in Poland in 1959 or the one in Buenos Aires in the early 1960s, which sealed deep connections with the Argentine group Boa. Thanks to these international ramifications, the Phases journal published issues of great typographical and visual richness, blending theoretical texts, automatic poetry, and reproductions of artworks, becoming the main link between previously isolated artistic hubs.

On the aesthetic and theoretical level, the movement rejected the watertight border between abstract and figurative art, preferring to explore the concept of the analogical image and "magical morphology." Édouard Jaguer championed techniques rooted in automatism, chance, and textural experimentation, welcoming creators into the movement who utilized frottage, collage, dripping, or decalcomania. PHASES thus became a welcoming platform for many major artists emerging from CoBrA (such as ALECHINSKY or CORNEILLE), Italian Spatialism, or the Informal Art movement, all united by the desire to reveal the poetic power and hidden dreamscapes at the heart of pictorial matter.

The longevity of PHASES was exceptional for an avant-garde movement, as its collective activities and publications continued actively until the early 2000s, the year of Édouard Jaguer's passing. Over the decades, the movement established a lasting rapprochement with the official Surrealist group starting in 1959, while maintaining its autonomy and its role as a discoverer of talent. Today, the history of PHASES is recognized for having preserved the flame of international poetic experimentation, connecting artists of all nationalities around a shared ideal of absolute creative freedom.

A few of the most significant historical exhibitions that marked and structured the international journey of the movement:

- « Phases » (1955 – Galerie Kléber, Paris)
This was the very first official collective exhibition of the movement in France, organized right after the launch of the journal. Édouard Jaguer laid down the visual foundations of the burgeoning network, bringing together works that fused the Surrealist spirit with the explorations of Lyrical Abstraction.

- « Phasen » (1957 – Galerie van de Loo, Munich)
This milestone marked the expansion of Phases into Germany. It enabled the establishment of close ties with avant-garde artists across the Rhine, notably members of the Spur group, and affirmed the European and cross-border dimension of the movement.

- « Phases – Confrontation internationale » (1959 – National Museum, Poznan / Lódz, Poland)
A major historical and political milestone. In the midst of the Cold War, Jaguer succeeded in organizing an official exhibition in Poland, creating a unique cultural bridge between Western artists and the Polish avant-garde (around figures like Kantor). The impact on the local art scene was immense.

- « Phases – International Exhibition » (1960 – Galerie Van Lier, Amsterdam)
Organized in the Netherlands, this exhibition followed in the direct path of the networks woven during the CoBrA era. It confirmed the anchoring of Phases in Northern European countries and its capacity to unite creators advocating for a spontaneous and texture-driven painting style.

- « Phases – First River Exhibition » (1963 – Museo de Artes Plásticas, Buenos Aires, Argentina)
This exhibition sealed the definitive alliance between the Parisian core of PHASES and the Argentine group Boa, led by Julio Llinás. It marked the pinnacle of the movement's expansion into the South American continent, where poetic automatism found a vibrant echo.

- « Phases » (1972 – Musée des Beaux-Arts, Mons, Belgium)
A major retrospective that reviewed nearly two decades of activities, publications, and artistic complicities, particularly with Belgian Surrealism, reaffirming the longevity and theoretical consistency of Édouard Jaguer's movement.

- « Phases » (1974 – Musée d'Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium)
An immense collective confrontation that came to seal the unbreakable bonds between the French pole of PHASES and Belgium (a historical breeding ground that had already embraced the spirit of CoBrA and Surrealism).

- « 1ª exposição Phases em Portugal » (1977-1978 – Estoril, Porto, Coimbra, Portugal)
Following the fall of the dictatorship in Portugal (the Carnation Revolution in 1974), the PHASES movement carried out a major traveling tour there to connect artists of the Portuguese cultural liberation with international Surrealism. The reception would extend to the Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts in Lisbonne in 1979 and 1985.

- « Phases » (1978 – Museo Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, Mexico)
A large-scale deployment on the American continent, where the movement exhibited its concepts of automatism and magical morphology within Mexican artistic circles.

- « Métamorphases » (1991 – Galerie 13, Hannover, Germany)
A major German thematic exhibition celebrating the permanence of the experimental techniques (collages, transformations of matter) championed by the movement.

- « Phases, from 1952 to the horizon 2001 » (2000 – Centre culturel Le Kiosque, Mayenne and Centre culturel Noroît, Arras, France)
One of the very last large-scale manifestations held during Édouard Jaguer's lifetime. Conceived as a retrospective and prospective overview at the turn of the millennium, it traced nearly 50 years of artistic insubordination.

  A FEW STEPS ON THE PATH OF PHASES

1951 - Cease of publication for the only two European journals dedicated to exploring new forms of expression arising from the encounter between Surrealism and Lyrical Abstraction: Cobra and Rixes.

1952 - Within this uncertain perspective, Édouard Jaguer and a few of his friends undertook in a purely empirical manner the creation of an open structure for various materialization possibilities, through which contacts could be reinforced and enriched among diverse individuals or groups scattered across ten different countries: West Germany, Belgium, Denmark, Egypt, France, Italy, the Netherlands, Sweden, the USA, etc. — this on an ideological basis excluding any formalistic bias and granting the widest place to the imaginary, conceived as the source of all valid creation, and exalted as a revolutionary spring of reality.

1953 - L'Arbre et l'Arme, the first printed document bearing the mention Phases, published on the occasion of an ALECHINSKY and TAJIRI exhibition in Amsterdam. Text by Christian Dotremont, drawings by HÉROLD and LAM.

1954 - January: publication of the first issue of the Phases journal (whose title was quite naturally adopted to designate by extension the activity of painters and writers participating in exhibitions or appearing in the tables of contents of the new movement's journals). First exhibition at the Galerie Facchetti, gathering works by: ALECHINSKY, ARNAL, BRYEN, BUCHHEISTER, CAPOGROSSI, CORNEILLE, Claude GEORGES, R.E. GILLET, K.O. GÖTZ, S.W. HAYTER, HÉROLD, JORN, LAM, MATTA, NIEVA, SCHULTZE, TAJIRI. First contact with the Italian Nuclear Movement of BAJ and DANGELO.

1955 - Publication of Phases No. 2 (cover by Max ERNST). On this occasion, a large exhibition at the Galerie Creuze in Paris, where the French public could discover for the first time new aspects of young Italian painting (BAJ, DANGELO, DOVA, BERTINI, FONTANA, SCANAVINO), Swedish (FAHLSTRÖM), and Spanish (NIEVA, TAPIÈS) alongside sculptures by the poet Jean-Pierre DUPREY and a tribute to ERNST gathering around twenty of his works.
Phases exhibition in Mexico City.
Foundation of the journal Salamander in Malmö, under the aegis of painter C.O. HULTÉN and poet Ilmar Laaban. In close connection with the Phases movement, three issues would appear (1955-57).

1956 - Foundation of the journal Il Gesto in Milan, by BAJ and DANGELO (four issues, 1956-59).
Exhibition in Milan, under the title Il Gesto.
Exhibition in Genoa, under the title 44 (co-organizer: E. SCANAVINO).
Exhibition in Paris, Galerie Kléber, on the occasion of the publication of Phases number 3.

1957 - Exhibition at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam, whose catalogue constitutes Phases No. 4.

1958 - Foundation of the journal Edda in Brussels, by the painter and poet Jacques LACOMBLEZ (five issues, 1958-64).
In Buenos Aires, foundation of the journal Boa by the poet J.A. Llinas (three issues, 1958-60).
Exhibitions around the world: Brussels, Wuppertal, Lima, Montevideo, Buenos Aires, Tokyo...

1959 - The existence of shared conceptions and goals on most political, moral, and artistic questions brought about a rapprochement between Phases and the Surrealist movement.
Argentina: Phases Exhibition at the Santa Fe Museum.
Italy: in Naples, foundation of the journal Documento-Sud by Guido BIASI, in close connection with Phases (six issues until 1961).
Poland: first Phases events in the East. Organized with the assistance of Alexandre Henisz and Janusz Bogucki, an exhibition in Kraków, Warsaw, and Lublin. On this occasion, a tape recording was made in Paris, containing a message to Polish intellectuals, read by André Breton, an overview of new Surrealist poetry by J.L. Bédouin followed by readings of poems by Breton, Péret, Mayoux, Mesens, Jaguer, Lebel, Legrand, etc. This recording was played during the opening of the first exhibition (in Kraków), and the tape was later deposited at the Mickiewicz Museum.

1960 - Paris: Phases No. 5/6.
Joint publication by the Surrealist and Phases movements of Tir de barrage, a declaration asserting their absolute identity of views and their dialectical relationship facing certain confusing trends within the Avant-Garde.
Brussels: Exhibition La face inconnue de la Terre at the Galerie Saint-Laurent.

1961 - Milan: Exhibition Gruppo Phases at the Galerie Schwarz.
Paris: Phases No. 7. Exhibition Solstice de l'Image at the Galerie du Ranelagh.
New York: International Surrealist Exhibition, organized by André Breton, Marcel Duchamp, Édouard Jaguer, and José Pierre.

1962 - Paris: Exhibition La Cinquième saison (greffages) at the Galerie du Ranelagh, the first overview of collage and assemblage across DADA, Surrealism, Cobra, and Phases (HAUSMANN, Farfa, Breton, Péret, MAGRITTE, STYRSKY, TOYEN, Heisler, Mesens, Brunius, ALECHINSKY, CORNEILLE, Jaguer, Makowski, Hasior, Meissner, Gironella, etc.).
Phases No. 8. Exhibition at the Galerie de l'Université.

1963 - Buenos Aires: Exhibition Phases at the National Museum of Fine Arts.
Paris: Exhibition Vues imprenables at the Galerie du Ranelagh.
Significant divergences emerged between the Phases movement and certain elements of the Paris Surrealist group (among others José Pierre) regarding the stance to take towards the offensive of Pop Art — differences that would soon make the pursuit of joint action impossible.

1964 - São Paulo: constitution of the southern group (groupe austral) of Phases in Brazil, under the aegis of Walter Zanini. Exhibition of the movement at the M.A.C. in São Paulo, then in Rio de Janeiro and Minas Gerais.
Paris: Phases No. 9. Exhibitions at the Galerie de l'Université and the Galerie du Ranelagh ("Phases-desseins").
Brussels: large exhibition of the movement at the Musée d'Ixelles (co-organizers Jacques Lacomblez and Jean Coquelet), publication of a special issue notebook.
Czechoslovakia: Czech poets and painters, some emerging from the 1944-1947 Ra group (Václav Tikal, Zdenek Lorenc, Josef Istler), collaborated increasingly regularly with various aspects of Phases activity. Within the journal, a large section was devoted to imaginative Czech art, ranging from the Poetism of Štyrský and Toyen and the visionariness of Muzika and Janoušek to the spatial explorations of Koblasa and Veselý. Correspondents in Czechoslovakia: František Šmejkal and Ladislav Novák.

1965 - Caen: Mars autour du Surréalisme at the Théâtre-Maison de la Culture, featuring 36 Phases artists (co-organizer: Boris Rybak).
Leverkusen (Germany): Exhibition Metamorphosen, organized by Rolf Wedewer and Édouard Jaguer.
Mexico City: Exhibition "Phases desseins", Galerie de l'O.P.I.C., organized by Alberto Gironella.
Paris: Phases No. 10.

1967 - Paris: Phases No. 11.
São Paulo: Exhibition of the southern group of Phases at the M.A.C.

1968 - June 15: while the retaking of France by the Gaullist regime asserted itself, publication of the tract La Révolution sera inspirée ou ne sera pas, signed by 32 representatives of the Phases Movement in France.
Lille: June-July, under the aegis of the Atelier de la Monnaie, exhibition Phases: une internationale révolutionnaire de l'art contemporain, co-organized by Roger Frézin and Pierre Vandrepote.

1969 - Paris: Phases No. 1, second series.
Montmaur: La Revue et le Mouvement Phases, Galerie Pops Gaibrois. This exhibition would later be transferred to Toulouse.
Czechoslovakia: Exhibition Phases at the Jihlava and Hradec Králové Museums and at the Brno House of Culture.

1970 - Strasbourg: Constitution of the Group La Main à Proie and exhibition On ne vit que deux yeux at the Librairie 24 (co-organizers: Christian Bernard and Jean-Claude Wallior).
Paris: Phases No. 2, second series.

1971 - Poland: from March to October, second cycle of Phases exhibitions organized by Antoni Zydron in the Museums of Wroclaw, Sopot, Poznan, and Slupsk.
Nice: constitution of a Phases group on the initiative of the painter Henri MACCHERONI.