Henri Michaux, 1964, Indian ink on paper, 75 x 105 cm
Zao Wou Ki, 1960, aquarelle et encre sur papier, 47 x 35 cm
Yann Bagot, Myriades, 2023, Indian ink and sea salt on paper, 76 x 56 cm
Mark Tobey, Landscape, 1967, Tempera on paper 10,2 x 19,3 cm
Vera Molnar, Structure + Horizontales, 1969,
Drawing on a single light table on Benson France paper, 31 x 31 cm
Galerie Berthet-Aittouarès, booth 79
Painting writing from 1960 to nowadays
January 25th to February 1st, 2026
Halls 3, 4, and 8. Entry only via Hall 4
Place de Belgique 1, 1020 Brussels
The galerie BA-Berthet-Aittouarès, directed by Odile Aittouarès, has been participating in Brafa for twelve years, sharing a stand with the galerie AB run by her sister Agnès Aittouarès.
This year, the gallery Berthet-Aittouarès is focusing on a resolutely gestural abstract expression. True to its interest in line, gesture, and calligraphy—from Michaux to Zao Wou-Ki, Mark Tobey to Hans Hartung, Vera Molnar, and Yann Bagot— the galerie Berthet-Aittouarès has always explored the richness of “sign expression,” a form of painting in which gesture becomes language and meditation
Henri Michaux, an unclassifiable figure born in Namur in 1899 and who died in Paris in 1984, perfectly embodies this dialogue between poetic writing and painting. Rejecting any form of “easy fulfillment,” he favored experimentation and constantly broke new ground. A great traveler, he discovered the Far East in 1930, a seminal journey that would inspire his story Un Barbare en Asie (A Barbarian in Asia, 1931). In 1949, his encounter with Zao Wou-Ki would prove equally decisive. In 2004, for Chine Occident ou l'aventure du signe (China West or the Adventure of the Sign), Michèle and Odile Aittouarès personally invited Zao Wou-Ki to engage in a dialogue with the work of his friend Michaux. The galerie Berthet-Aittouarès has already devoted several exhibitions and publications to the French-Belgian painter. …Who has never wanted to grasp more, grasp better, grasp differently, both people and things, not with words, nor with phonemes, nor with onomatopoeia, but with graphic signs?
Henri Michaux in this rapprochement between Asia and the West, the indispensable Mark Tobey (1890–1976) was the only one missing. A major American artist, exhibited at MoMA as early as 1929 and often considered to have influenced Jackson Pollock, Tobey studied Chinese calligraphy and Zen painting in the 1930s. After spending time in China and Japan, he finally chose to settle in Europe. His work, often described as musical, finds particular resonance in the painting presented this year by the galerie Berthet-Aittouarès at Brafa, from the collection of Swiss pianist François Gaudard, who in 1967 performed the 17 piano pieces composed by Mark Tobey.
From calligraphic gestures to dripping, we naturally arrive at Hans Hartung, whom the gallery has represented for many years. The 1957 work presented this year bears witness to his friendship with Zao Wou-Ki: Hartung uses a Chinese brush that Zao Wou-Ki gave him.
Drawing was also reinvented by Vera Molnar, a pioneer of digital art, who created the first computer drawings on a plotter in the 1960s. She was celebrated in 2024 with a major solo exhibition at the Centre Pompidou, on the eve of her 100th birthday.
Finally, the exhibition concludes with the youngest artist featured, Yann Bagot (born in 1983). His work, in which he becomes one with the seascape, explores the reactions of ink, salt, and water to “paint” or “write” the sea.
Hans Hartung, 1957, Mixed media on paper mounted on canvas, 12 x 17.5 cm