Tony Gonnet & Cassie Guy – Lost & Found: A Correspondence Transcending Time 

Les Yeux de Monde is pleased to present its first exhibition of 2026, new work by Virginia-based painter Cassie Guy alongside the first U.S. presentation of work by French modernist Tony Gonnet (1909–2004).

The exhibition features a focused selection of Gonnet estate works chosen by Guy, who discovered Gonnet’s work by providence in a local antique store, where a small gouache—signed simply “T. Gonnet”—first arrested her attention. Drawn to its refined geometry and chromatic restraint, she began researching the artist, a search that ultimately led her to Paris and to Gonnet’s widow, Hatice Gonnet. What began as chance curiosity developed into a sustained relationship grounded in shared reverence for Tony Gonnet’s work and legacy. Over multiple trips to France, Guy spent time in the studios and domestic spaces where Gonnet lived and worked, including his final apartment and studio in the Marais, formerly occupied by Paul Cézanne.

Tony Gonnet (1909–2004) was a figure of mid-century French modernism, whose work evolved from Surrealist drawing to refined geometric abstraction over more than six decades. Gonnet trained as an industrial draughtsman, and contributed to the design of a pioneering aircraft engine in the 1930s, instilling in him a lasting commitment to precision and structure. During the Second World War, while stationed in Casablanca, he began to draw and paint in a Surrealist idiom—a turning point that redirected his analytical rigor toward a deeply personal artistic practice. From 1941 onward, he developed a substantial body of work recognized in France by the 1950s.

In 1946, Gonnet abandoned figurative Surrealism in favor of abstraction, forging a language of geometric form, graded tonality, and subtle chromatic harmony that would define his work. His earliest abstract compositions were often modest in scale—small panels and painted pebbles gathered from Mediterranean beaches—yet already displayed the formal discipline and measured balance that characterized his practice. For Gonnet, painting aspired to the condition of music, which he regarded as the highest expression of creative freedom.

A central presence in the postwar intellectual milieu of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Gonnet was closely associated with Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Jean Genet, Albert Camus, Simone Signoret, Boris Vian, and the Prévert brothers. His exhibitions were frequently introduced by leading critics and writers, including Genet, Pierre Courthion, and Jean Cassou. Often described as “existentialist,” his work sought harmony of form and color in response to fundamental questions of human existence, a pursuit articulated in journals and writings now held at the Institut Mémoires de l’Édition Contemporaine (IMEC). Despite sustained exhibitions in Paris and across Europe, Gonnet resisted self-promotion, favoring the discipline of the studio. His work is held in important French public collections, including that of the city of Péronne, and his remaining oeuvre will one day become part of the permanent collection of the Musée de Grenoble.

Cassie Guy’s paintings in this exhibition extend Gonnet’s legacy through a contemporary lens. Engaging directly with documents, photographs, and the environments that shaped his practice, Guy’s work draws from archival materials, reflection and imagination. Working primarily on wood panels and employing various paints, pencils, pen and collaged elements, Guy constructs interior spaces and still lifes that hover between observation and invention. Time bends and motifs recur; geometry, light, and color echo Gonnet’s practice yet remain distinctly Guy’s. She writes:

“In creating this series, I’ve come to see my work as a form of communion. It is not only a documentation and record of Tony Gonnet, but a living process of discovery and connection that transcends time. The works are an invitation to linger in the spaces where influence becomes intimacy, and where the boundaries between artists, lives, and eras dissolve into light, color and dreamlike expressions.”

Cassie Guy is a mixed-media artist based in Charlottesville, Virginia. She received her BFA in Studio Art and Art History from Davidson College and went on to study at Parsons School of Design in Paris and New York, earning an AAS in Fashion Design. Guy spent sixteen years in New York City working as a fashion designer for Rebecca Taylor, Madewell/J.Crew, and others, while also developing her own line, Cass Guy, which was sold internationally and through retailers including Saks Fifth Avenue, Takashimaya, and Bird Brooklyn. Extensive travel throughout Japan, Hong Kong, and Europe during this period left a lasting imprint on her visual language. Since relocating to Virginia in 2016, Guy has focused on her studio practice, creating largely abstract works on wood panels that unite the dreamlike and surreal with the dailiness of familiar forms. Her work draws on early immersion in museums, a lifelong engagement with material and process, and the landscape of the Virginia foothills, with a confident use of color, pattern, and texture reflecting her background in fashion design.