Jean Helion's abstract work of the 1930s established him as a leading modernist. His midcareer rejection of abstraction was followed by nearly five decades as a figurative painter. Hélion became a leading figure in French nonobjective painting in the 1930s with his sophisticated compositions of large, oddly curving planes arranged in sequences against a background of flat color. These paintings are notable for their subtle harmonies of cool and pastel colors and for the mechanistic connotations of their monumental shapes.
He was also the author of several books and an extensive body of critical writing.
