JEAN DEGOTTEX Français, 1918-1988

Jean Degottex was born in 1918 in Sathonay in the Ain region of France, and began painting in his early twenties. In 1949, he exhibited for the first time with Denise René, who had championed the abstract avant-garde since the war and was the major dealer for the New School of Paris in the 1950s. In 1952, he exhibited at the Maeght gallery with the « Mains éblouies » group. In 1953, he exhibited in the United States at the Salomon Guggenheim Museum in New York as part of the Younger European Painters exhibition. In the 1950s, alongside Simon Hantaï, he was one of the pioneers of a lyrical abstraction that was to become one of the main influences of the New York School. From this time onwards, he developed an interest in the gesture of writing and Zen philosophy. His canvases feature large, almost calligraphic gestures on surfaces of increasingly neutral colour. His works on paper from this period, which bear poignant witness to this research, also include a discussion of the presence of colour. He died in Paris in 1988.