Jean Degottex (Sathonay-Camp 25 February 1918–Paris 9 December 1988) was a French abstract painter, known in particular for his initial proximity to the lyrical abstraction movement of the 1950s and 1960s. 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.[1] Degottex was particularly inspired by East Asian calligraphy and Zen Philosophy to achieve the erasure of the creative subject.[2]
Life and art
Jean Degottex was born in Sathonay-Camp and spent his childhood in Lyon. Coming from a modest background, he was almost self-taught. 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. He served in the military in Tunisia and Algeria from 1939 to 1941, the years during which he painted his first figurative paintings, under the influence of Fauvism.[1]
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 Gallery, which was associated with avant-garde abstract artists, and at the Beaune Gallery. That year he met Renée Beslon, a 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, favoring freedom and speed of execution.[1]
In 1953, he exhibited at the L'Étoile scellée gallery, whose artistic director was André Breton. Breton saw in Degottex's latest works (Feu noir 12–1955, Ascendant 12–1955) a possible pictorial illustration of the principle of "automatic writing", which characterized the works of the surrealist artists. Degottex pointed out to him his spontaneous affinity with Chinese and Japanese writings, and especially with the philosophy and practices of Zen.[3]
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, 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.[4]
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.[1] 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.[1]
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.[1]
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, 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, 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
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, Jean Degottex, Henri Michaux, 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
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