Jean Degottex (born in

Sathonay-Camp Sathonay-Camp () is a commune in the Lyon Metropolis (Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region), eastern France. The commune was created in 1908, when the former commune Sathonay was split into the communes of Sathonay-Camp and Sathonay-Village. With a popula ...

on 25 February 1918; died in

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

on 9 December 1988) was a French abstract

painter Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the "matrix" or "support"). The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and ai ...

, known in particular for his initial proximity with the

lyrical abstraction Lyrical abstraction is either of two related but distinct trends in Post-war Modernist painting: ''European Abstraction Lyrique'' born in Paris, the French art critic Jean José Marchand being credited with coining its name in 1947, considered ...

movement of the

1950s The 1950s (pronounced nineteen-fifties; commonly abbreviated as the "Fifties" or the " '50s") (among other variants) was a decade that began on January 1, 1950, and ended on December 31, 1959. Throughout the decade, the world continued its re ...

and

1960s File:1960s montage.png, Clockwise from top left: U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War; the Beatles led the British Invasion of the U.S. music market; a half-a-million people participate in the 1969 Woodstock Festival; Neil Armstrong and Buzz ...

. He is considered an important artist of the abstraction movement in the second half of the twentieth century and a significant inspiration for

contemporary art Contemporary art is the art of today, produced in the second half of the 20th century or in the 21st century. Contemporary artists work in a globally influenced, culturally diverse, and technologically advancing world. Their art is a dynamic com ...

. Degottex was particularly inspired by

East Asian calligraphy Calligraphy (from el, link=y, καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a pen, ink brush, or other writing instrument. Contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "t ...

and Zen philosophy in achieving the erasure of the creative subject.

Life and art

Jean Degottex was born in

and spent his childhood in

Lyon Lyon,, ; Occitan: ''Lion'', hist. ''Lionés'' also spelled in English as Lyons, is the third-largest city and second-largest metropolitan area of France. It is located at the confluence of the rivers Rhône and Saône, to the northwest of t ...

. Coming from a modest background, he was almost

self-taught Autodidacticism (also autodidactism) or self-education (also self-learning and self-teaching) is education without the guidance of masters (such as teachers and professors) or institutions (such as schools). Generally, autodidacts are individua ...

. At the age of fifteen, he moved to Paris with his parents, quit school and began to earn his living. In Paris, he made contact with the libertarian circles of the 1930s, and occasionally practiced drawing in the academies of

Montparnasse Montparnasse () is an area in the south of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes, between the Rue de Rennes and boulevard Raspail. Montparnasse has bee ...

. He served in the military in

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

and

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

from 1939 to 1941, years during which he painted his first figurative paintings, under the influence of

Fauvism Fauvism /ˈfoʊvɪzm̩/ is the style of ''les Fauves'' (French language, French for "the wild beasts"), a group of early 20th-century modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong colour over the Representation (arts), repr ...

. He then decided to devote himself entirely to painting. From 1941, he took part in the "Salon for those under thirty" (Salon des moins de trente ans). From 1948 his art became abstract and was closer to lyrical abstraction. In 1949, he had his first exhibition, at the

Denise René Denise René (born Denise Bleibtreu; June 1913 – 9 July 2012) was a French art gallerist specializing in kinetic art and op art. Life and work Denise René took as her guiding principle the idea that art must invent new paths in order to exist ...

Gallery, which was associated with avant-garde abstract artists, and at the Beaune Gallery. That year he met Renée Beslon, poet, visual artist and art critic, who would remain his companion until his death. in 1951 Degottex was awarded the Prix Kandinsky. From 1954, his style moved towards a

gestural abstraction Action painting, sometimes called "gestural abstraction", is a style of painting in which paint is spontaneously dribbled, splashed or smeared onto the canvas, rather than being carefully applied. The resulting work often emphasizes the physical a ...

, favoring the freedom and speed of execution. In 1953, he exhibited at the L'Étoile scellée gallery, whose artistic director was

André Breton André Robert Breton (; 19 February 1896 – 28 September 1966) was a French writer and poet, the co-founder, leader, and principal theorist of surrealism. His writings include the first ''Surrealist Manifesto'' (''Manifeste du surréalisme'') o ...

. Breton saw in Degottex's latest works (Feu noir 12–1955, Ascendant 12–1955) a possible pictorial illustration of the principle of "

automatic writing Automatic writing, also called psychography, is a claimed psychic ability allowing a person to produce written words without consciously writing. Practitioners engage in automatic writing by holding a writing instrument and allowing alleged spiri ...

", which characterized the works of the

surrealist Surrealism is a cultural movement that developed in Europe in the aftermath of World War I in which artists depicted unnerving, illogical scenes and developed techniques to allow the unconscious mind to express itself. Its aim was, according to l ...

artists. Degottex pointed out to him his spontaneous affinity with Chinese and Japanese writings, and especially with the philosophy and practices of Zen. The period from 1956 to 1963 was particularly fruitful in Degottex's career. It is also the best known to the public. During those years, he painted large-scale works, often in series with the same idea used repeatedly: ''suite Ashkenazi'' (1957), ''suite Serto'' (March–April, November 1957), ''suite des Hagakure'' (November 1957), ''les 18 Vides'' (1959), ''suite des Roses'' (1960), ''suite des Alliances'' (1960), ''les 7 Metasignes'' (1961), and ''Jshet'' (1962). During this time he experienced tragedy when his daughter, Frédérique, died in an accident at the age of 16. After a year of mourning, Degottex resumed his series: ''Écritures,'' with the following works: the ''suites Rose-Noire'' (August 1964), ''Suite Obscure'' (November–December 1964), ''Metasphère'' (1966), ''ETC'' (December 1964 / March 1967) and ''Horsphères'' (1967). From 1966 until his death, he produced a wider collection of work in

Gordes Gordes (; oc, Gòrda) is a commune in the Vaucluse département in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region in southeastern France. The residents are known as ''Gordiens.'' The nearest big city is Avignon; smaller cities nearby include Cavaillo ...

, in the Vaucluse region, where from the early 1970s, he lived in summers with Beslon. From 1972 to 1976, he held several solo exhibitions at the Galerie Germain. In particular, he exhibited the Médias series. The works in the series usually contain two areas of separated color: a plain surface in matte black acrylic and a lower part in Chinese ink wash. He worked more and more with paper material: the tearing technique, for example, revealing this texture (''seriés d’ARR rouges, puis blancs''). The Germain Gallery also exhibited his ''Papiers Pleins'' (1974-1975), papers glued and peeled in horizontal stripes, and his ''Papiers pleins Obliques'' (1976) with incisions raised by diagonals. With the work ''Papiers-Report'' (1977), he began to explore a new technique that involved ''"reporter"'' by folding half of the paper surface onto the other. He used this imprint technique on all sorts of materials, including large acrylic canvases, like in the ''séries des Lignes-Report'' (1978) and the ''Plis-Report'' (1978). In 1979 he created specifically for a solo exhibition at the ''Abbaye de Sénaque'' at Gordes, a series of paintings referred to as ''Déplis.'' In 1981 he was awarded the Grand National Prize of Painting (Grand Prix National de la Peinture). In 1982, he joined the Gallery of France and created the series of the ''Grilles-Collors'', the ''Oblicollors'', and the ''Diacollors''. His last major works were the ''Lignes-Bois'' (1985) and the ''Contre-Lignes Bois'' (1986), in white, grey, or blue grey. Jean Degottex died in Paris on 9 December 1988.

Exhibitions

Solo exhibitions

* Galerie de Beaune, Paris, 1950 * Galerie à l’Étoile Scellée, textes by André Breton and Charles Estienne, Paris, 1955 * Galerie Kléber, textes by Renée Beslon, Paris, 1956 and 1958 * Les ''Dix-huit vides'', Galerie internationale d'art contemporain, Paris, 1959 * Les ''Alliances'', Hélios Art, Bruxelles ; galerie San Stephan, Vienne, 1960 * ''Sept Métasignes sur la Fleur'', Palais des beaux-arts, Bruxelles, 1961 * ''Horsphères'', Galerie Jean Fournier, Texte by

Alain Jouffroy Alain Jouffroy (11 September 1928 – 20 December 2015) was a French writer, poet and artist. Jouffroy was born near Parc Montsouris, Paris. He was the first advocate of an Art Strike and formed the L'Union des Ecrivains during the strikes of ...

, Paris, 1967 * ''Les déchirures'', Galerie Germain, Paris, 1972 * ''Suite'', ''Mèdias'', Galerie Germain, Paris, 1976 and 1978 * Musée de Grenoble, 1978 * ''Degottex. Toiles, papiers, graphiques, 1962-1978'', musée d'Art moderne de la ville de Paris, texte by

Bernard Lamarche-Vadel Bernard Lamarche-Vadel (16 July 1949, Avallon. – 2 May 2000, La Croixille in Mayenne) was a French writer, poet, art critic and collector. Life The son of a veterinarian, self-taught, his tastes for art and literature earned him a paternal a ...

, 1978 * Abbaye de Sénanque, Gordes, Vaucluse, 1979 * ''Degottex. Notes de parcours,'' Galerie de France, Paris, 1983 and 1985 * ''Repères 1955-1985'', Galerie de France, Paris 1988 * Musée d’Évreux et Musée de Brou, Bourg-en Bresse, 1988

Exhibitions after death

* ''Degottex. Reports 77-81'', texte by Pierre Buraglio, Galerie de France, Paris, 1990 * ''Signes et Métasignes'', texte by Renée Beslon, Carré d'Art, Nîmes, 1992 * ''Papiers-Reports'', Galerie Sablon, Paris, 1993 * ''Médias'', texte de Geneviève Breerette, Galerie Rabouan-Moussion, Paris, 1996 * ''Degottex'', Espace Fortant Sète, 1997 * ''Reports'', texte by Maurice Benhamou, Galerie Regard, Paris 1997 * ''La révolution continue'', Frac Bourgogne, Dijon, 2000 * ''Œuvres 78-83'', textes by Hubert Besacier and Maurice Benhamou, Maison de la culture de Bourges, 2003 * ''Degottex'' ''73-86'', textes by Hubert Basacier et Maurice Benhamou, Carré Saint Vincent, Orléans, 2005 * ''Degottex, 58-85'', texte by Pierre Wat, Art Paris, Galerie l'Or du Temps, 2007 * ''Jean Degottex'', textes by M. Benhamou, B. Heidsieck, R. Mabin, Pierre Wat, directed by A. Cariou, musée des beaux-arts de Quimper, 2008 * Musée du monastère royal de Brou,

Bourg-en-Bresse Bourg-en-Bresse (; frp, Bôrg) is the Prefectures in France, prefecture of the Ain Departments of France, department in the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Regions of France, region in Eastern France. Located northeast of Lyon, it is the capital of the ...

, 2009 * Musée des beaux-arts, Évreux, 2009 * Galerie Pascal Lainé, présentation Dominique Bollinger, Ménerbes, Vaucluse, 2011 * Galerie Bernard Bouche, Paris, 2013 * ''Vide-matière'', Galerie Jacques Lévy, Paris, 2013 * ''Jean Degottex, du signe à l'écriture, de l'écriture à la ligne'', texte by Pierre Wat, galerie Berthet-Aittouares, Paris, 2013 * Frac Bourgogne,

Dijon Dijon (, , ) (dated) * it, Digione * la, Diviō or * lmo, Digion is the prefecture of the Côte-d'Or department and of the Bourgogne-Franche-Comté region in northeastern France. the commune had a population of 156,920. The earlies ...

, 2014 * Galerie Berthet-Aittouares, Paris, 2015

Group exhibitions

* ''Sept peintres'', Galerie Denise René, Paris, 1949 * ''Peintres de la Nouvelle École de Paris'', Galerie de Babylone, Paris, 1952 * ''La Coupe et l'Épée'', galerie L'étoile Scellée, Paris, 1953 * ''Alice in Wonderland'', Galerie Kléber, Paris, 1956 * ''Tensions - Jean Degottex, Simon Hantaï,

Judit Reigl Judit Reigl (née Némedy; 1 May 1923 – 6 August 2020) was a Hungarian painter who lived in France. Biography Reigl was born on 1 May 1923 in Kapuvár, Hungary. She attended the Hungarian University of Fine Arts from 1942 to 1945 where she w ...

, Claude Viseux'', Galerie René Drouin, 1956 * '' Documenta II'',

Cassel Cassel may refer to: People * Cassel (surname) Places ;France * Cassel, Nord, a town and commune in northern France ** Battle of Cassel (1071) ** Battle of Cassel (1328) ** Battle of Cassel (1677) ;Germany * Cassel, Germany, a city in Hesse renam ...

, Allemagne, 1959 * XXXIIe Venise Biennale, Italy, 1964 * ''L’écriture du peintre : Degottex, Georges, Giacometti, Hantaï, Hartung, Mathieu, Michaux, Sonderborg, Tobey'', textes by Geneviève Bonnefoi, Galerie Jean Fournier, 1964 * ''Douze ans D'art contemporain en France'', Grand Palais, Paris, 1972 * ''Abstraction Analytique'', musée d'Art moderne de la ville de Paris, 1978 * ''Lenguajes del papel.

Geneviève Asse Geneviève Asse (Vannes, French Third Republic, France, 24 January 1923 – 11 August 2021) was a French painter. She died in August 2021 at the age of 98. She was awarded the Grand-Cross of the National Order of the Legion of Honour. Genevièv ...

, Jean Degottex,

Henri Michaux Henri Michaux (; 24 May 1899 – 19 October 1984) was a Belgian-born French poet, writer and painter. Michaux is renowned for his strange, highly original poetry and prose, and also for his art: the Paris Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim ...

'', Buenos Aires, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, 1987

Exhibitions after death

* ''La peinture après l'Abstraction.1955-1975. Martin Barré, Jean Degottex, Raymond Hains, Simon Hantaï, Jacques Villeglé'', textes by Suzanne Pagé, musée d'Art moderne de la ville de Paris, 1998 * ''Rendez-vous'', Guggenheim museum and Centre Georges-Pompidou, New York and Paris, 1998 * ''Kunst-svelten'' ''im Dialog'', Ludwig museom, Köln, 2000 * ''Encre / Chine - T'ang Haywen,

Gao Xingjian Gao Xingjian (高行健 in Chinese - born January 4, 1940) is a Chinese émigré and later French naturalized novelist, playwright, critic, painter, photographer, film director, and translator who in 2000 was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature " ...

, Jean Degottex'', Hong Kong University Museum and Art Gallery, mai-juin 2005 * ''Les Sujets de l'Abstraction'', Fondation Gandur, musée Rath, Genève, 2011 et musée Fabre, Montpellier, 2012 * ''Phares'', Centre Pompidou-Metz, 2014-2016

Awards

* 1951: * 1981: National Grand Prize for Painting

Public collections

France France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pac ...

** Bourg-en-Bresse, musée de Brou **

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, musée des beaux-arts **

Rennes Rennes (; br, Roazhon ; Gallo: ''Resnn''; ) is a city in the east of Brittany in northwestern France at the confluence of the Ille and the Vilaine. Rennes is the prefecture of the region of Brittany, as well as the Ille-et-Vilaine department ...

, Frac BretagneFonds régional d'art contemporain de Bretagne.
Œuvres du Frac Bretagne : ''Vague n°3'' (1954), ''Tréompan I'' (1954)... **

, Musée des beaux-arts **

Évreux Évreux () is a commune in and the capital of the department of Eure, in the French region of Normandy. Geography The city is on the Iton river. Climate History In late Antiquity, the town, attested in the fourth century CE, was named ...

, Musée d'Évreux **

Colmar Colmar (, ; Alsatian: ' ; German during 1871–1918 and 1940–1945: ') is a city and commune in the Haut-Rhin department and Grand Est region of north-eastern France. The third-largest commune in Alsace (after Strasbourg and Mulhouse), it is ...

Musée Unterlinden The Unterlinden Museum (French: ''Musée Unterlinden'') is located in Colmar, in the Alsace region of France. The museum, housed in a 13th-century Dominican religious sisters' convent and a 1906 former public baths building, is home to the Isenh ...

Grenoble lat, Gratianopolis , commune status = Prefecture and commune , image = Panorama grenoble.png , image size = , caption = From upper left: Panorama of the city, Grenoble’s cable cars, place Saint- ...

Musée de Grenoble The Museum of Grenoble (french: Musée de Grenoble) is a municipal museum of Fine Arts and antiquities in the city of Grenoble in the Isère region of France. Located on the left bank of the Isère River, place Lavalette, it is known both for ...

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Franc ...

Musée Cantini The Musée Cantini is a museum in Marseilles that has been open to the public since 1936. The museum specializes in modern art, especially paintings from the first half of the twentieth century. The building The musée Cantini building was bui ...

Nantes Nantes (, , ; Gallo: or ; ) is a city in Loire-Atlantique on the Loire, from the Atlantic coast. The city is the sixth largest in France, with a population of 314,138 in Nantes proper and a metropolitan area of nearly 1 million inhabita ...

, Musée des beaux-arts **

***

Bibliothèque nationale de France The Bibliothèque nationale de France (, 'National Library of France'; BnF) is the national library of France, located in Paris on two main sites known respectively as ''Richelieu'' and ''François-Mitterrand''. It is the national repository ...

***

Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou The Centre Pompidou (), more fully the Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou ( en, National Georges Pompidou Centre of Art and Culture), also known as the Pompidou Centre in English, is a complex building in the Beaubourg area of ...

*** Fonds national d'art contemporain *** Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris **

Saint-Paul-de-Vence Saint-Paul-de-Vence (, literally ''Saint-Paul of Vence''; oc, Sant Pau de Vença; it, San Paolo di Venza) is a commune in the Alpes-Maritimes department in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region of Southeastern France. One of the oldest medie ...

Fondation Maeght The Maeght Foundation or Fondation Maeght () is a museum of modern art on the ''Colline des Gardettes'', a hill overlooking Saint-Paul de Vence in the southeast of France about from Nice. It was established by Marguerite and Aimé Maeght in 19 ...

Toulon Toulon (, , ; oc, label= Provençal, Tolon , , ) is a city on the French Riviera and a large port on the Mediterranean coast, with a major naval base. Located in the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, and the Provence province, Toulon is th ...

, Musée d'art de Toulon *

Austria Austria, , bar, Östareich officially the Republic of Austria, is a country in the southern part of Central Europe, lying in the Eastern Alps. It is a federation of nine states, one of which is the capital, Vienna, the most populous ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

, Museum of Modern Art *

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

Bruxelles Brussels (french: Bruxelles or ; nl, Brussel ), officially the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) (french: link=no, Région de Bruxelles-Capitale; nl, link=no, Bruss ...

Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium The Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium (french: Musées royaux des Beaux-Arts de Belgique, nl, Koninklijke Musea voor Schone Kunsten van België) are a group of art museums in Brussels, Belgium. They include six museums: the Oldmasters Muse ...

** Liège, musée des beaux-arts *

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territorie ...

Minneapolis Institute of Arts The Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia) is an arts museum located in Minneapolis, Minnesota, United States. Home to more than 90,000 works of art representing 5,000 years of world history, Mia is one of the largest art museums in the United State ...

New York New York most commonly refers to: * New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York * New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States New York may also refer to: Film and television * '' ...

Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, often referred to as The Guggenheim, is an art museum at 1071 Fifth Avenue on the corner of East 89th Street on the Upper East Side of Manhattan in New York City. It is the permanent home of a continuously exp ...

Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

Israel Museum The Israel Museum ( he, מוזיאון ישראל, ''Muze'on Yisrael'') is an art and archaeological museum in Jerusalem. It was established in 1965 as Israel's largest and foremost cultural institution, and one of the world’s leading encyclopa ...

* Japan **

Osaka is a designated city in the Kansai region of Honshu in Japan. It is the capital of and most populous city in Osaka Prefecture, and the third most populous city in Japan, following Special wards of Tokyo and Yokohama. With a population of 2. ...

, Gutai Gallery **

Kurashiki is a historic city located in western Okayama Prefecture, Japan, sitting on the Takahashi River, on the coast of the Inland Sea. As of March 31, 2017, the city has an estimated population of 483,576 and a population density of 1,400 persons per ...

, Ōhara Museum of Art *

Netherlands ) , anthem = ( en, "William of Nassau") , image_map = , map_caption = , subdivision_type = Sovereign state , subdivision_name = Kingdom of the Netherlands , established_title = Before independence , established_date = Spanish Netherl ...

Amsterdam Amsterdam ( , , , lit. ''The Dam on the River Amstel'') is the Capital of the Netherlands, capital and Municipalities of the Netherlands, most populous city of the Netherlands, with The Hague being the seat of government. It has a population ...

, Peter Stuyvesant collection *

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic country located on ...

Malmö Malmö (, ; da, Malmø ) is the largest city in the Swedish county (län) of Scania (Skåne). It is the third-largest city in Sweden, after Stockholm and Gothenburg, and the sixth-largest city in the Nordic region, with a municipal populat ...

, Konsthall

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Degottex, Jean 1918 births 1988 deaths French male painters 20th-century French painters Art Informel and Tachisme painters