[1] In 1943, the Salon de Mai was founded as an Association (declared in 1944) in opposition to Nazi ideology and its condemnation of degenerate art.
It founder members were the art critic Gaston Diehl and the painters, sculptors and engravers Henri-Georges Adam, Emmanuel Auricoste, Lucien Coutaud, Robert Couturier, Jacques Despierre (who suggested naming the salon after the month in which its first meetings were held), Marcel Gili, Léon Gischia, Francis Gruber, Jean Le Moal, Alfred Manessier, André Marchand, Édouard Pignon, Gustave Singier, Claude Venard and Roger Vieillard, who together formed it direction committee.
Several of them (Coutaud, Gischia, Le Moal, Manessier, Marchand, ORAZI, Pignon, Singier) participated in the 1941 exhibition Vingt jeunes peintres de tradition française [fr].
Under its president Gaston Diehl the first Salon de Mai exhibition took place in the art galerie "Pierre Maurs" (3, avenue Matignon) from 29 May to 29 June 1945.
Its honorary committee was made up of Germain Bazin, Jacques Dupont, René Huyghe, Bernard Dorival, Michel Florisoone, Pierre Ladoué and Marc Thiboutet.