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. Degottex was particularly inspired by East Asian calligraphy and Zen Philosophy to achieve the erasure of the creative subject.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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, 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
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, 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, 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, Claude Viseux, Galerie René Drouin, 1956 Documenta II, Cassel, 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, 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 Kunst-svelten im Dialog, Ludwig museom, Köln, 2000 Encre / Chine – T'ang Haywen, Gao Xingjian, 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 Bourg-en-Bresse, musée de Brou Brest, musée des beaux-arts— L'Épée dans les nuages, 1954, huile sur toile
— Finis Terrae, 1956, gouache sur toile Rennes, Frac BretagneFonds régional d'art contemporain de Bretagne. Œuvres du Frac Bretagne : Vague n°3 (1954), Tréompan I (1954)... Dijon, Musée des beaux-arts Évreux, Musée d'Évreux Colmar, Musée Unterlinden Grenoble, Musée de Grenoble Marseille, Musée Cantini Nantes, Musée des beaux-arts Paris Bibliothèque nationale de France Centre national d'art et de culture Georges-Pompidou Fonds national d'art contemporain Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris Saint-Paul-de-Vence, Fondation Maeght Toulon, Musée d'art de Toulon Austria Vienna, Museum of Modern Art Belgium Bruxelles, Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium Liège, musée des beaux-arts United States Minneapolis Institute of Arts New York City, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum Israel Jerusalem, Israel Museum Japan Osaka, Gutai Gallery Kurashiki, Ōhara Museum of Art Netherlands Amsterdam, Peter Stuyvesant collection Sweden Malmö, Konsthall
Representative Artworks
References