Guy de Cointet (1934–1983) was a French-born artist based in California who created text and sculptural works, often combining them as props and stage sets in theatrical performance pieces.

Biography

Guy de Cointet was born in Paris in 1934, the son of a military officer. He attended high school with Yves Saint Laurent and the fashion photographer Jérôme Ducrot, both of whom shared and influenced de Cointet's interest in fashion. After unsuccessfully competing in a 1952 clothing design competition sponsored by the Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture, de Cointet attended the

École des Beaux-Arts de Nancy École may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * École, Sav ...

. In 1956 he moved to Paris, where he worked as an illustrator for the magazines

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ''Vogue Australia'', an Australian fashion magazine ** ''Vogue China'', ...

and Jardin des Mondes. de Cointet moved to New York in 1965, following brief stays in the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...

and in central France near

Limoges Limoges (, , ; oc, Lemòtges, locally ) is a city and Communes of France, commune, and the prefecture of the Haute-Vienne Departments of France, department in west-central France. It was the administrative capital of the former Limousin region ...

. Shortly after arriving in New York, de Cointet was introduced to the sculptor Larry Bell by their mutual friend Susan Hoffman. Bell hired de Cointet as an assistant, working first at Bell's studio in New York. He later followed Bell to Venice Beach, California, where de Cointet would reside until his death in 1983. Between 1975 and 1977 he taught at the Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles, giving courses focusing on

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

Artwork

Guy de Cointet's text works on canvas and on paper were based on systems of

encoding In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communication ...

or abstracting text, such as by mirror writing. These pieces used found text from popular culture, everyday conversation or literary sources, often creating a humorous, droll, ironic, or melancholic effect. He produced several encrypted publications, including a completely encrypted newspaper titled ''ACRCIT''. Silkscreen printed by Pierre Picot, a French artist teaching at CalArts, ''ACRCIT'' was distributed for free through newspaper boxes across Los Angeles. His performance pieces combined literary puzzle or codes and the tropes of TV

soap opera A soap opera, or ''soap'' for short, is a typically long-running radio or television serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term "soap opera" originated from radio dramas originally being sponsored ...

, drawing inspiration from the works of Raymond Roussel. The pieces were performed by actors such as

Factory A factory, manufacturing plant or a production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. T ...

'superstar'

Viva Viva may refer to: Companies and organisations * Viva (network operator), a Dominican mobile network operator * Viva Air, a Spanish airline taken over by flag carrier Iberia * Viva Air Dominicana * VIVA Bahrain, a telecommunication company * ...

and diminutive comedian

Billy Barty Billy Barty (born William John Bertanzetti, October 25, 1924 – December 23, 2000) was an American actor and activist. In adult life, he stood tall, due to cartilage–hair hypoplasia dwarfism. Because of his short stature, he was often cast ...

. Theater critic Frantisek Deak once wrote of Cointet's structuralist approach that the artist juxtaposed "lifelike casual conversation with contrived literary language ... ointingout that both are particular styles and that, with a certain distance, the casual conversation will appear contrived as well." Deak was specifically referring to plays such as ''Tell Me'' (1979), in which fashionably attired actresses variously describe a white cardboard square featuring the black capital letters A, D, M, and T. His work has influenced that of

Paul McCarthy Paul McCarthy (born August 4, 1945) is a contemporary artist who lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Life McCarthy was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1945. He studied art at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, and later continued ...

, Mike Kelley, and

Catherine Sullivan Catherine Sullivan (born 1968) born in Los Angeles, California is an associate professor in the Department of Visual Arts at the University of Chicago, and a Chicago-based artist whose work combines video and performance. She was educated at the ...

, among others.

Selected works

Performances

* ''Lost at Sea'' (1975) * ''Five Sisters'' (1982) * ''Ethiopia'' (1976) * ''Iglu'', ''Ramona'', ''Cigar'', (1977) * ''Tell Me'' (1979) * ''The Bridegroom'' (his last work, never performed in his lifetime) ''Ethiopia'', ''Iglu'', ''Cigar'', and ''Ramona'' were collaborations with the artist Robert Wilhite. ''Five Sisters'' was a collaboration with artist

Eric Orr Eric Orr (1939–1998) is an American artist who lived and worked in Venice, California from 1965 to 1998. Before moving to Los Angeles in 1965, Orr was a civil rights worker in Mississippi. A key figure of the Light and Space movement, Orr deve ...

Books and publications

* ''A Captain from Portugal'' (1972) * ''A Few Drawings by Guy de Cointet'' (1975) * ''ACRCIT'' (newspaper, 1975)

Selected exhibitions

* ''Who's That Guy?'', MAMCO, Geneva, 2004 * ''Making Words With Things'', CRAC, Séte, 2006 * ''Guy de Cointet'', Le Quartier, Quimper, curated by

Frédéric Paul Frédéric Paul (born in 1959) is a French curator and writer who works and lives in Vannes and Paris, France. He was former director of the F.R.A.C. Limousin (Limoges, France) from 1990 to 2000, and of the Domaine de Kerguéhennec from 2000 to 20 ...

, 2011

References

External links

Guy de Cointet at Air de Paris gallery

Preliminary catalogue of works on paper on the Percept Gallery site

by Judith Hoffberg at ''ArtScene'' * Guy de Cointet'
''Tell me'', 1979
at Air de Paris, November 17, 2006.
''Guy de Cointet: Making Words With Things''
Art Review, February 2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Cointet, Guy de 1934 births 1983 deaths Artists from Paris École des Beaux-Arts alumni French emigrants to the United States Artists from Los Angeles