"My magical and mystical concerns manifest themselves in my painting. I have always been interested in two poles: the erotic and the magical."
It is impossible to associate Atlan with one of the many pictorial movements of his time, the fifties, because his painting is an assault on reality, a transgression of the usual artistic language to create a universe of curious, prehistoric forms. For his works borrow from the magical world of myths, immemorial oceanic legends, or Jewish mysticism. He reproduces them in tightly woven paintings, colours circumscribed by intense blacks as in stained glass, archaic and tremulous. Through his works, Atlan transmits a vision which promises to shed light on the shadows of our caves, as the torch of his painting illuminates with quivering flame our initial mysteries.