Jean-Michel Atlan is a French painter, one of the major figures of post-war lyrical abstraction. He is the precursor of informal art with Hans Hartung, Gérard Schneider and Wols.

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Born in Constantine, Algeria, he went to live in Paris in 1930 to study philosophy before turning to painting. At the beginning, the artist painted in an expressionist style, with no formal order or structure. He works with color impasto, rubbing and erasures. In 1944, he devoted himself exclusively to painting and participated in his first group and individual exhibitions. The following year, he exhibited at the Salon des Sur Independants where he presented four non-figurative canvases. In 1946, he exhibited at the Denise René Gallery, then at the Maeght Gallery in 1947.

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Following his meeting with Jasper Johns, Jean-Michel Atlan joined the CoBrA movement. His style began to assert himself in the 1950s: he abandoned plastic organization to move towards an informal composition. The artist uses a thick and dark circle to delineate organic forms, evoking stylized human or animal figures, immersed in imaginary and dreamlike landscapes. The colors are applied in bright and contrasting areas, giving his works visual and emotional intensity. In his painting, the Berber traditions of his youth in Algeria, the Kabbalah as well as the reminders of old extinct kingdoms of Egypt, Sudan or Asia are combined. He exhibited abroad in Austria, Germany, Italy, Italy, Italy, Italy, England, England, England, Belgium, Yugoslavia, Japan and Denmark. He participated several times in the Menton and São Paulo Biennales.

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His paintings are preserved in several museums in France, such as in Paris, at the Pompidou Center and at the Museum of Modern Art in the City of Paris, and internationally, such as at the Tate Gallery in London, the Salomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, and the Museum of Modern Art in Tokyo. In 1963, the MAM devoted a retrospective to him, which was also exhibited in 1964 at the Tel Aviv Museum.

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