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Concept
Jean Degottex
Summary
Jean Degottex (born in Sathonay-Camp on 25 February 1918; died in Paris on 9 December 1988) was a French abstract painter, known in particular for his initial proximity with 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 in achieving the erasure of the creative subject.
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, 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, 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 the 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.
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