In 1934, Adam got involved with engraving, etching, the use of the
burin and the environment of the
surrealists,
André Breton,
Louis Aragon,
Paul Éluard. He made his first exhibit in 1934, with a preface by
Jean Cassou in 1936 after which he began his violently
impressionistic engravings entitled,
Désastres de la guerre, in response to the
Spanish Civil War. In 1936, Adam joined the Association of Revolutionary Writers and Artists, where he met painters
Maurice Estève,
Alfred Manessier,
Édouard Pignon, and
Árpád Szenes. He took part, along with
Picasso,
Matisse, Rouault,
Dufy,
Fernand Léger,
Chagall,
Chaïm Soutine,
Zadkine,
Roger Bissière and Édouard Pignon in the exhibition
Quatorze Juillet by
Romain Rolland at the Théâtre de l'Alhambra, in which Picasso painted the curtain scene. Adam tackled sculpting in 1942, and in October 1943 he, along with
Gaston Diehl, ,
Jean Le Moal, Manessier, Pignon,
Gustave Singier, became one of the fifteen founders of the
Salon du Mai. That same year, he created the sets and costumes, masks and two four meter-tall statues for
Jean-Paul Sartre's
Les Mouches which
Charles Dullin assembled. Adam also carved
Le Gisant, a tribute to the
French Resistance and martyrs, which would be exhibited in the Salon de la Libération. Adam became friends with Picasso, who lent him his studio in the rue des Grands-Augustins where he worked more at ease until 1950. Between 1948 and 1949, at his
Boisgeloup estate, near
Gisors, he realized among other works,
Le Grand Nu conserved by the
Musée national d'art moderne. In 1949, Adam presented a comprehensive exhibition of his works, frequently of women's sleek forms, at the gallery
Aimé Maeght and in 1952 his copper engravings based on the year's theme of the Month, went on display in the bookstore-gallery
La Hune. From 1950 to 1955, he was a professor of design at
Antony, at a college which today bears his name. During 1950, he instructed many painters and sculptors (including ). From 1955, the first retrospective of Adam's work was organized at the
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam. In 1956 and 1957, Adam developed one of his most famous suites of engravings,
Dalles,
Sable et Eau showing scenes of the sea, sand and granite of
Penmarc'h, and a series of sculptures named
Mutationes marines. He made new tapestries for the
French Embassy in
Washington in 1957,
Meridien for the Palace of
UNESCO in 1958, and
Galaxie for
Air France in
New York City in 1961. After a project for
Monument du Prisonnier Politique Inconnu in 1951, Adam's
Le Signal was erected in front of the Musée du Havre in 1961, the first of his monumental sculptures. The number of Adam's sculptures multiplied:
Le Cygne blanc for the Lycée Charlemagne à Vicennes (1962), exposition of
Obélisque oblique (1962) at the French Pavilion at the Exposition de
Montreal, a set of sculptures and tapestries for l'église de Moutier in Switzerland, for which Manessier created the windows (1963–1967),
Mur, a 22-meter-long wall, and
La Feuille for the lycée de Chantilly (1965),
Trois pointes effilées for the college-city of
La Flèche (1965), a monument for
Vichy (1960–1966),
La Grande étrave for the house of culture of
Thonon (1966),
Fontaine for the city of
Bihorel (1966),
Le Minotaure for the college-city of
Segré (1967), ''L'Oiseau de granit
and La Grande Table de conférence'' for the lycée technique de
Saint-Brieuc (1967). In 1959, Adam was appointed professor of engraving at the
École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts and later head professor of the workshop of monumental sculpture. He installed his own workshop and presses in La Ville du Bois, near
Montlhéry while many of his exhibitions were presented in museums in France and Europe. In 1961, Adam developed a series of sculptures entitled
Cryptogrammes. A retrospective of Adam's work was presented in 1966 at the Musée national d'art moderne in Paris with a foreword by
Bernard Dorival. Three of his sculptures and the tapestry ''Penmarc'h'' were presented the following year in Montreal. == Role as a war artist ==