Meidosem original

Original ink on cartridge paper, signed in ink on the lower right with Henri Michaux's monogram “HM.” A tiny tear, causing no effect, at the top of the leaf.
The drawing has been authenticated by M. Franck Leibovici, Henri Michaux's beneficiary, and will be entered into the catalogue raisonné in preparation.

The work appeared in the Michaux exhibition catalogue at the Galerie Drouin in 1948, and belongs to Michaux's “Meidosem” or “psychologism” period, an artistic pseudo-movement of which he was both the initiator and the only follower. “It is in 1946, in the preface to Peinture et Dessins, entitled ‘Thinking about the phenomenon of painting ,' that Michaux explains the rules of this art, aiming to paint ‘the portrait of temperaments 15.'” Indeed, for him, to paint a face is to project the essence on to the paper or canvas: “There is a certain inner ghost that you should be able to paint and not just the nose, the eyes, the hair that we can see on the outside... often as tough as old boots.” (In Rosaline Deslauriers, Les Meidosems d'Henri Michaux : émergences du dedans, résurgences orientales, Littérature et mathématiques, Numéro 68, Winter 2002).
Beautiful and rare ink drawing, perfectly preserved.