Before we see any of the work at London’s Amar Gallery, we’re already burdened by that most famous of surnames. Born in 1910, Hélène de Beauvoir became an artist of modest renown. Her poetic, often challenging, but always enticing paintings gained some notoriety in her life but never achieved widespread or lasting attention. Hélène, sister of philosopher, social theorist and feminist activist Simone De Beauvoir, died in a small village in northern France in 2001.
Now a small number of Hélène’s works are on view in “The Woman Destroyed” at London’s Amar Gallery. The gallery’s mission is to champion forgotten and neglected voices, and gallerist Amar Singh spent three long years sourcing the work for the show, which is named for Simone’s 1967 work that featured etchings by Hélène. Hélène de Beauvoir is an ideal subject for the gallery—like the horses and nudes hiding in her abstractions, Hélène may be hidden in art history but look closer, and you’ll find her story.
That Hélène happened to be the sister of France’s most famous female intellectual isn’t, of course, insignificant. Simone’s philosophy found a companion in Hélène’s work, each striving for autonomy—both bodily and intellectual. “I have never separated my life from my painting,” Hélène once said. “The subjects of my paintings are linked to my life… Nor have I ever tried to look at the world through a man’s eyes.”
The relationship between Hélène’s work and her sister was more than just academic: Hélène struggled financially, particularly at the beginning of her career, and Simone used some of her salary as a high school teacher to fund her sister’s studio, equipment and later her plane tickets so that she could attend the openings of her shows abroad. Yet even as Simone was essential to Hélène’s survival as an artist, that shouldn’t color our interpretation of her output. The latter was exhibiting in the ‘30s, while the former was still teaching to support herself. Hélène’s art was original; Picasso said as much at one gallery opening.
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Looking around Amar Gallery, it’s impossible not to be drawn in by the boldness of color and form. There are several early rural watercolor scenes that are easier to enjoy, but it’s the later, more abstract works that invite sustained and repeated viewings. It’s tempting to over-intellectualize the work given the signature in the bottom right corner, but these canvases are experiential more than anything else.
Hélène was tuned into the politics of her time, and her art reflected this. For instance, she created a series of works entitled Le Joli Mois de Mai (The Lovely Month of May) in response to the student upheavals of May 1968. The series was due to be exhibited in a Right Bank gallery, but the head of the gallery got scared after seeing the paintings’ revolutionary message and pulled out at the last minute. Hélène was also an activist outside of her art: in 1975, she became president of a refuge for victims of domestic abuse and was a signatory of the 1971 Manifesto of the 343 Women (written by Simone), declaring that she had had an illegal abortion.
Yet politics is largely absent from “The Woman Destroyed,” as many of Hélène’s most political pieces are absent from the exhibition. What we do have, thanks to Singh’s efforts, is a small but worthy sample of a largely forgotten figure. The works that are available show a clear evolution of style—though not curated in a way that invites chronological viewings. Many will undoubtedly travel to the gallery on account of the artist’s famous surname, but perhaps the exhibition will make space for Hélène to exist in the cultural consciousness apart from Simone.
“Hélène de Beauvoir: The Woman Destroyed” is on at Amar Gallery until March 30, 2025.
