Henri Michaux was a Belgian-born French poet and artist. He spent most of his time doing poetry, and saw drawing and painting as 'a release from words'. The piece that I studies was an untitled Ink Drawing From 1963, which I saw in the Tate Modern gallery in London. I think the marks look like Calligraphy in a way, which is no coincidence as he created his own alphabet in 1927, as well as doing a lot of writing with his poetry. He used sticks to drag the ink repeatedly across the surface, he described this style as "Nothing but rhythm" and that he was "fighting with the blots". During the time of this painting he experimented with the drug 'Mescalin' which has similar affects to LSD. The results were very obsessive and detailed, as you can see it sways upwards, kind of like when you write without looking at the page. The exhibition catalog from 1968 read "Finally liberated from language, Michaux would throw, blow and drag ink around the paper, releasing his inner turmoil". He was a troubled man, his wife died in 1948 and he suffered from Anorexia, which could have kick-started his drug use.
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