HENRI MICHAUX, RETURN FROM CHINA
March 4 - May 29, 2021
Opening Thursday March 4
The artists of the exhibition:
...Who has not wanted one day to grasp more, grasp better, grasp differently, both beings and things, not with words, nor with phonemes, nor with onomatopoeia, but with graphic signs? ...
Henri Michaux
The Berthet Aittouarès gallery exhibits thirty paintings on paper chosen by Henri Michaux on the occasion of the return from China of several works lent for the exhibition "Henri Michaux-Mu Xin" at the Mu Xin Art Museum in Wuzhen and at the Power Station Museum in Shanghai. The proposed dialogue with the Chinese artist Mu Xin attests to the close and still current relationship between Henri Michaux (1899-1984) and Chinese culture.
An unclassifiable figure, Henri Michaux (1899-1984) led both poetic writing and painting. Against “easy plenitude”, he cultivates experimentation and charts new paths.
A great traveller, he went to the Far East in 1930 and on his return in 1931 published "A Barbarian in Asia". The discovery of China and Chinese culture marked a turning point in his life, as did his meeting in 1949 with the painter Zao Wou-Ki and in the 1950s with the poet and calligrapher François Cheng.
Very quickly, drawing appears to her as a form of writing that is all the more liberating in that it is freed from the obstacle of the meaning of words. Chinese calligraphy, where writing and drawing become one, challenges him and inspires him with a new language where the sign reigns. He adopts Indian ink and fluid techniques that allow spontaneity and speed of execution.
...I am one of those,he writes,who love movement, who break inertia, who confuse lines, who undo alignments...movement as disobedience...
The mastery of gesture and rhythm make shapes and signs evolve on paper with a strength and a timeless freedom of expression, always captivating, in resonance with the spectator. Michaux said:the spectator is free to see a battle, a drowning or some amorous melee.
Berthet-Aittouares Gallery
14 and 29 rue de Seine
Tuesday Saturday
11:00 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. / 2:30 p.m. – 7:00 p.m.
T: +33 (0)1 43 26 53 09