Henri Michaux. Moments ---- mouvements

28 March to 2 May 2015 ⟶ Corneliusstraße

Exhibition view

O.T., 1960, ink, 75 x 108 cm

Untitled, 1960, Chinese ink/Japanese paper, 32 x 45 cm

Untitled, 1960, Chinese ink/paper, 50 x 37,5 cm (SOLD)

Untitled, 1962, mixed media/arches/velin, 74.8 x 106.1 cm

Exhibition view

Untitled, ca.1970, mixed media/paper, 32,5 x 24 cm

Untitled, 1973, mixed media/paper, 32 x 24 cm

Untitled, 1973, mixed media/paper, 32 x 24 cm (VERKAUFT)

Exhibition view

Untitled, 1967, acrylic/arched cardboard, 56.5 x 75 cm

Untitled, 1969, acrylic/arche cardboard, 56 x 75 cm

Untitled, ca.1974, acrylic/handmade paper, 56 x 37,5 cm

Untitled, 1960, Chinatown/Japanese paper, 22.5 x 33.5 cm (SOLD)

Exhibition view

Untitled, ca. 1970, ink/paper, 72 x 112 cm (SOLD)

Aquarelle, 1938, watercolour/paper, 16 x 24 cm (SOLD)

Compositon, 1978, ink/paper, 50 x 65 cm

Henri Michaux was a border violator, a despiser of disciplines, the poet of the simplest words, the painter of simple facts. Everything always hastily painted, thought through and lived through, in other words simply presented. Written as if narrated by a fabulist, painted and inked as if just invented, although long thought and experienced. Rapidity of notation, haste of notation, fast, immediate, but of the highest precision, no retouching that would have disturbed the "FLUX". Decision to "so"-and if that doesn't work or suffice: throw it away. And this "so" is again in permanent motion, the blobs, signs, notes, symbols, abbreviations, little men or heads, they are all unstable, persist between clear recognisability and pleasant anonymous indistinctness: figuration out of a desire for signs? Addition of signs to obtain figures? Open in form - and open in semantics - who would ever have been able to do such a thing in 20th century art/literature - or even attempted it?! (Text: Manfred de la Motte)

Henri Michaux