HENRI MICHAUX (1899-1984) Lot n° 69

Sans titre Ink on paper, monogrammed lower right 119 x 141 cm 47 ¼ x 55 33/64 in. Of Belgian origin, Henri Michaux is a writer, poet and painter of French expression. Born in Namur in 1899, he grew up in Brussels but decided in the early 1920s to leave his native country to settle in Paris. Little by little, he moved away from his Belgian origins and finally became a French citizen in 1955. He began his career by writing, notably by actively participating in the avant-garde review Le Disque vert in Brussels, but also by being a member of the editorial committee of the review Hermès in Paris. From 1925 onwards, he turned to painting and developed an important graphic production. He used watercolor, pencil, gouache and ink. From a very young age, the artist showed a fascination for medicine and, failing to pursue a career in this field, he developed his interest, particularly in psychoanalysis, through both his pictorial and literary productions. From the 1950s onwards, Henri Michaux turned to new experiments and deliberately altered his conscious state by taking mescaline, a hallucinogenic plant originating from Mexico. The resulting works are like pictorial dances, illustrating ideas, emotions or even the beginnings of the mind. The forms that appear on the canvas are not fixed, we cannot discern if they are about to disappear or if they have just been born, they are the image of our mind, of its reorganization and its constant movement. In this way, the works he creates are never finished products but rather glimpses of his search for movement. He himself explains: "I wanted to draw the consciousness of existence and the flow of time. As one feels one's pulse". Since his youth, Henri Michaux has been interested in music, and in each of his travels he has sought to immerse himself in the traditional musical styles of the countries he visited. As he does for other of his creations, Henri Michaux tries to listen to music under the hallucinatory influence of mescaline, trying to study the effects of listening according to the drugs. While many composers have sought to put into music his poems and writings, it is Maurice Le Roux (1923 - 1992) who will try with the most success, especially when he composed, between 1951 and 1953, Au Pays de la Magie, six poèmes d’Henri Michaux, pour soprano et piano. Avant-garde composer and fervent defender of contemporary music, Maurice Le Roux is also a recognized conductor. A friend of Georges Pompidou, Olivier Guichard and Henri Michaux, he was decorated with the Légion d'honneur and was a member of the jury of the Cannes Film Festival. The work we are presenting today was acquired by Maurice Le Roux from Henri Michaux directly in his studio. It is exceptional, as much by its origin as by its rare dimensions and its aesthetic qualities. It has a particularly elaborate composition, dense in places, airy in others with touches that sometimes seem to escape. This work was also used as an illustration for the cover of the 33 rpm vinyl record of Le Roux's interpretation of Au Pays de la Magie, six poèmes d’Henri Michaux, pour soprano et piano by the ORTF in 1974. It is also used as an illustration for the 1984 reissue, where it is represented upside down.