MICHAUX Henri (1899-1984)

Lot 310
Go to lot
Estimation :
20000 - 30000 EUR
Result with fees
Result : 23 400EUR
MICHAUX Henri (1899-1984)
Autograph handwritten notebook with original drawings 1969, in English and French, 49 in-8 sheets in black felt pen, blue and black ink and pencil, spiral notebook. Blue plastic cover, metal spiral. Red morocco striped folder, slipcase. More than 600 original autograph drawings in ink: pictograms, Chinese and Japanese ideograms, some fanciful. At the end, 6 autograph drawings in pencil (landscapes, cat heads, mescaline frames, frieze of characters, eagle, chicks, snake). This manuscript presents series of pictograms accompanied by long explanatory captions in English. Only page numbered 42, devoted to Chinese hieroglyphic writing, is accompanied by comments in French. In 1930, a trip to Asia decided on Michaux's later work: "Born, raised and educated in an environment and culture of the 'verbal' alone. I paint to decondition myself" (Emergences-Résurgences). Michaux decides to learn Chinese and Japanese. This notebook indicates that the first session took place on November 27, 1969. In this search for a language in movement, one understands Michaux's interest in Chinese writing, which is very closely linked to pictorial art. Chinese culture has created its writing from images, and the original pictograms have not undergone fundamental changes for five thousand years. The ideograms in this notebook are presented in series of four where we see this evolution from image to sign. The drawing is gradually transformed into a typeface. However, the ideograms that Michaux draws are created by his imagination. They do not exist in the Chinese language. The character meaning "man" that Michaux invents is the deformation and simplification of a drawing representing a man. This sketchbook is a poetic work in its own right: Michaux invents a language inspired by Chinese ideograms. Writing is born from drawing. "Such as they are today, far from their former mimicry, Chinese signs have the grace of impatience, the flight of nature, its diversity, its incomparable
My orders
Sale information
Sales conditions
Return to catalogue