Jean Degottex occupies a unique place in the history of French abstraction, at the boundary between gesture and silence. A painter of the essential, he pursued a demanding quest throughout his life: to strip painting of all artifice in order to reach a form of inner truth. Initially close to lyrical abstraction, Degottex gradually moved away from it to explore a more restrained pictorial language, where the sign, the trace, and erasure become language itself.

His work engages in a dialogue with Far Eastern calligraphy and Zen philosophy, without ever resorting to imitation: each canvas is a space for breathing, a field of subtle tensions between presence and disappearance. Deep black, vibrant white, measured rhythm of gesture: Degottex paints as one meditates, with rigor and humility.

Through series and variations, he affirms a painting of necessity, serious and luminous, where the gaze is invited to slow down, to listen to what, in the simplest trace, touches the infinite.