‘Writes less and less, paints more’ Henri Michaux's pre-verbal journey
In a biographical account written by Henri Michaux himself, he says: ‘1951-52-53. Writes less and less, paints more.’ The set of India ink drawings on paper in the MACBA Collection come from that creative moment. Made in 1950, Michaux, the great explorer, gradually abandoned writing to dedicate himself to artistic activity. As if emerging from this creative crossover, these signs resemble an alphabet, ideograms with a private meaning or graphisms in search of semantics. On more than one occasion, the author claimed he did not exactly know what these signs were. ‘I was possessed by movements, totally pulled by those shapes that were coming to me at full speed, rhythmically.’ As if looking for a universal language, Michaux creates characters that bypass words. Eschewing any known alphabet, he explores a state that predates a common language. A pre-verbal code that awaits you in the MACBA Collection exhibition.
