Jean-Michel Folon was born on March 1, 1934, in Uccle, Belgium. During the 1954-1955 academic year, he studied industrial design at the National School of Visual Arts in La Cambre. Encouraged by his teachers and his uncle Étienne Samson, he left Brussels for Paris in 1955 and settled in a gardener's lodge in Bougival.
Folon's illustration style is distinguished by his broad watercolor gradations and the use of deliberately schematic figures. His works reflect the questions of post-May 1968 Western society, with figures wandering through barren landscapes or oppressive urban spaces. Occasionally, he acts in films such asThe Fall of a BodyAndNaked Love.
In 1983, he designed Apple's first logo, "Mr. Macintosh," followed in 1989 by the logo for the Philexfrance 89 international stamp exhibition and the "Birds" logo for the commemoration of the French Revolution. Folon was also committed to human rights, illustrating the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and participating in various campaigns for Amnesty International. He married Colette Portal and Paola Ghiringhelli, and died on October 20, 2005, in Monaco from leukemia.
The Folon Foundation, created by the artist in 2000 in the Solvay Estate Park in La Hulpe, presents more than 300 works in a space designed by Jean-Pierre Cluysenaar. In 2015, the Foundation opened "L'atelier Folon" in Monaco to promote his work. On the occasion of the Foundation's 10th anniversary, the Belgian Post Office issued a booklet of ten "Folon" postage stamps on 16 October 2010.
