Jean Degottex/Bernard Heidsieck at Kamel Mennour

Historical exhibition: a series of works by Jean Degottex (1918-1988) and the poems that Bernard Heidsieck (1928-2014) composed for them. Degottex was one of the most radical experimenters with abstraction: scarlet or black surfaces which appear monochrome, but are animated by nuances, and on which appear black looping lines or drips. In 1958, he exhibited them at the Kléber gallery in Paris, where Heidsieck suffered the shock. He himself then sought how to achieve the most immediate form of poetry and composed eleven sound pieces about the Degottex. Their meeting became friendly and sparked several moments of joint work over the following two decades. The exhibition reconstructs its phases, once again bringing together the inks and acrylics of one, and the texts, scores and recordings of the other. The purest and darkest Degottexes are obviously reminiscent of Black Paintings by Mark Rothko, exactly contemporary. Apart from bad reasons – nationalism of the North American market, laziness and conformism of museums – we do not see why the Rothkos have become immensely famous while the Degottexes, who are no less intense, are still at it today. stage of reappearance.