Daniel Dezeuze: Eternally Questioning Painting

Meeting Daniel Dezeuze is rather like having a date with the history of art. We are talking of the 1970-1972 period, when the artist from Alès, who moved to Sète (southern France) in 1978, worked in Paris with Claude Viallat and Patrick Saytour, among other colleagues, in shaping the Supports/Surfaces movement . A short way from Pierre Soulages ' studio-house on Mont Saint-Clair, his home with its splendid Mediterranean garden commands a dizzying view of the sea. Below, his studio lies hidden in greenery. The eternally elegant artist takes up his position here each morning according to a time-honored ritual. "I stop work in the late morning, then come back in the late afternoon and look back at what I've done to see how I'm going to carry on the next day. I usually create alone, but two mornings a week my assistant—an artist from Sète—comes to help me, especially when I'm working on large pieces. " On the walls, small works tell the story of his artistic journey, based largely on the use of "poor", somewhat fragile materials like veneering wood, expandable…