Unfortunately this exhibit (The Drawing Center, Soho NYC) will be closing
after 12/20, but the catalogue may be of interest to members of this list:
Untitled Passages by Henri Michaux
Catherine de Zegher (ed.)
http://www.info-france-usa.org/culture/art/events/michaux-drawing.html
"Untitled Passages" by Henri Michaux is the first New York museum exhibition
of works by the poet and artist since a retrospective at the Guggenheim
Museum in 1978. Curated by The Drawing Centers director Catherine de Zegher
and Geneva and Paris-based independent curator Florian Rodari, the
exhibition takes its title from Michauxs extensive body of untitled
drawings and from Passages, his book of poetic writings. Through an
investigation of Michauxs graphic works in tandem with his poetic practice,
the exhibition will address his research into the passages between "writing"
and "drawing."
The celebrated poet and writer Henri Michaux (1899-1984), who was born in
Namur, Belgium, made drawing a highly significant component of his work. The
prolific nature of his practice as a draftsman, which included experiments
with a wide range of styles and materials, indicates that drawing did not
merely accompany his words, it formed a symbiotic partnership with them.
Michaux merged his writing into his drawing and his drawing into his
writing, pushing the boundaries of each form of expression. As the
artist/writer felt the limitations of language, he turned to drawing to
undermine the established linguistic order, which he transformed into
"non-sense." Always in flux, his ink drawings explode linguistic systems and
allow for the appearance of the indescribable. In contradistinction to the
Surrealists, who attempted to disregard the linguistic system through
experiments with automatic writing, Michaux accepted the system of language
yet eroded it from within by blurring the distinctions between writing and
drawing.
Despising all that was static and blindly accepted, the artist devised
numerous strategies in his early years to counter inaction, both in his
personal life and in his writings. He traveled worldwide (including Asia and
South America) and, in 1922, left Belgium for Paris, which became his
permanent city of residence. Beginning in the 1920s, Michaux took up
drawing, and it was through this activity that he sought to delve into the
wellspring of the unknown and the spontaneous. Whether thrown onto paper or
flung from the pen, Michauxs use of ink, followed later by watercolor, was
fluid, direct, and shapeless; these qualities allowed the artist to gain
access to his emotions and give fuller expression to their remarkable
subconscious power.
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