Les alliances Thème Rose 1959

Jean Degottex made this painting, Les alliances Thème Rose, with ink, or maybe sumi ink, and it’s all about the gesture, a language reduced to near nothing. It's kind of mind-blowing to imagine Degottex in the moment, right? I can see him, trying to empty his mind, to get out of his own way and just let the brush do its thing. The ink looks so fluid and alive on the paper. It’s dark, almost black, and pools in some spots, while elsewhere it thins to a whisper. Look at that stroke that arches across the paper. It's so confident and deliberate. It’s as if he's trying to capture some fleeting moment. Painters have been having this conversation for centuries, this exchange of ideas and techniques and feelings. They look at each other's work, steal from each other, get inspired, and push back. And that's how painting evolves, right? It is like, if we embrace not-knowing, ambiguity, and uncertainty, we open up space for new ways of seeing, thinking, and feeling, like Degottex did.