[3] The journal, founded by art critic Christian Zervos in Paris at 14, rue du Dragon in 1926, and was published until 1960.

Though publication was interrupted from 1941 to 1943, the first post-war issue was dated 1940–1944 and focused on poets and writers from the Resistance, including Vercors.

Samuel Beckett also contributed one of his earliest texts in French, The Painting of Van de Velde or the World and the Pants.

The journal has been noted for the quality of its articles and illustrations which promoted Modern Art in France for over thirty years.

[4] Artists represented include Picasso, Matisse, Fernand Léger, Max Ernst, Raoul Dufy, Marc Chagall, Brâncuși, Van Gogh, Paul Klee, Henri Laurens, Moholy-Nagy, Jean Lurçat, Joan Miró, Calder, Victor Brauner, De Chirico, Wolfgang Paalen, Marcel Duchamp, and Man Ray.