Rating and value of paintings by Jean Degottex

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Artist's rating and value

Considered a major artist of lyrical abstraction, Jean Degottex exhibited widely during his lifetime. As a result, he already enjoyed a certain notoriety and presence on the art market.

Today, his stock continues to rise, the artist establishing himself as a sure bet on the art market, with prices at which they sell ranging from €40 to €200,000 on the art market.

A work by Degottex can fetch hundreds of thousands of euros at auction, as demonstrated by his painting Antee III, which fetched €200,000 in 2007, whereas it was estimated at between €80,000 and €120,000.

Order of value from the most basic to the most prestigious

Artist's style and technique

Jean Degottex, in his exploration of the limits of painting, is distinguished by a radical, structured approach, where matter and form confront each other in a game of ceaseless tensions.

From the 1950s onwards, he adopted an abstract approach, influenced by the theories of informal art, while detaching himself from the gestural convulsions of his contemporaries.

Texture becomes for him a language in itself, a vibrant surface on which colors, laid down with meticulous density and precision, seem to develop independently of the hand that guides them.

The gesture, though mastered, fades behind a rigorous treatment of pictorial elements, an "architecture" of matter where each brushstroke, each streak, becomes an unbreakable unity.

His palette, often restricted to a range of dark, earthy tones, evokes a contemplative depth, creating zones of light and shadow that testify to his interest in the play of light and spatiality.

Degottex doesn't just describe; he structures, organizes and gives shape to pictorial space, making the medium itself a protagonist.

While his approach can be traced back to the influence of American and European abstract art, it is distinguished by a desire to achieve an aesthetic tension in which painting cannot be reduced to a mere decorative surface, but becomes a reflection on materiality and space in its formal purity.

Thus, Degottex's work draws on both the heritage of the avant-garde and a personal quest to redefine painting through a constant exploration of texture and composition.

Jean Degottex, a major artist of lyrical abstraction

Jean Degottex, born in 1918 in Paris, is a painter whose artistic evolution is marked by a constant effort to understand and redefine the relationship between space, color and matter.

In the 1940s, he moved away from figurative painting towards abstraction, attracted by the influence of lyrical abstraction and informalism. In 1947, his first works already expressed a desire to escape preconceived forms, to free the canvas from the constraints of figuration.

His painting becomes a systematic exploration of gesture and matter, where color no longer serves solely to represent, but becomes a force of its own, a sensory experience.

The 1950s marked a turning point in his work, where he met influential artists such as Hans Hartung, Wols or Georges Mathieu.

These exchanges nourished his own pictorial language and led him to develop a distinctive technique where the brushstroke, sometimes violent, sometimes more measured, traces an imprint that seems to overflow the limits of the painting.

At the same time, he pursues his search for meaning through compositions in which the presence of matter and the space between forms occupy a primordial place.

His painting, while deeply rooted in abstraction, dialogues with movement, energy and the freedom of gesture.

Jean Degottex's imprint on his period

Jean Degottex's imprint on his period is manifest in his relentless quest for a painting freed from formal constraints. His works of the 1950s and 1960s, marked by a dynamic use of color and gesture, reaffirm his break with academic art.

At a time when abstract art was beginning to take hold, his approach to painting became a veritable act of rebellion against the established order.

His technique, a blend of vigorous gesture and meticulous chromatic research, succeeds in renewing pictorial space, giving birth to a language in which instinct and matter are paramount.

Through his innovations and his desire to constantly reinvent the act of painting, Degottex left an indelible mark on French abstraction, contributing to its singularity while influencing many contemporary artists.

The transition from figurative to abstract in his works is not without tension: he makes it an exploration, a challenge to traditional ordering. Each canvas becomes a space where emotion, guided by the material itself, emerges in a controlled explosion.

Thus, his work rests on an ideal of controlled improvisation, in which color no longer merely represents but takes shape, unfolds and imposes itself as an entity in itself.

By pushing back the boundaries of painting, he established his name among the major figures of his time, and his influence endures, notably through the singularity of his approach, which combines pure abstraction with a search for raw, immediate expression.

Focus on Le ciel éclaté, Jean Degottex, 1963

In Le Ciel éclaté (1963), Jean Degottex offers us a vibrant painting in which color, stripped of all traditional restraint, expresses itself almost organically.

Using broad, unrestrained gestures, he liberates pictorial matter, abandoning structure in favor of raw energy.

The background, bursting with exploded nuances, seems to decompose under the effect of a dazzling gesture, creating a tension between the irruption of color and structure.

Degottex, by abandoning a linear composition, grants each fragment of his painting autonomy while reaffirming their belonging to an indivisible whole. Here, color is not a mere means of illusion, it is the subject itself.

The vibrant hues of red, blue and yellow, burst across the canvas like a silent cry, unfolding in a kind of visual dance where each shade seems to melt into the next.

This play of textures, between solids and superimpositions, gives rise to an unexpected depth, redefining pictorial space.

The eye is caught by this fluidity, this setting in motion that brings the canvas to life. In this sense, Le Ciel éclaté does not merely depict a reality, but transforms it, rendering it almost physical, through the intensity of his gesture.

With this work, Degottex inscribes his practice in the continuity of the abstract research of the 1960s, while proposing a personal vocabulary, deeply marked by the urgency of the moment and the tension between the visible and the invisible.

The stylistic influences of Jean Degottex

In his early works of the 1950s, Jean Degottex chose to turn to lyrical abstraction, a path where freedom of gesture became essential.

Borrowing from Abstract Expressionism, notably through the American Jackson Pollock, Degottex lets himself be guided by the impulse of the moment, a frenetic gesture that translates an unconstrained vision.

However, unlike Pollock, who plunges into raw energy, Degottex introduces a quest for mastery into his compositions, marked by a search for balance between chaos and harmony.

Geometry, though strictly absent, sometimes grazes the surface of his canvases, influenced by the traces left by Hans Hartung's geometric abstraction.

Alongside this, the spirit of the CoBrA movement, with its spontaneity and commitment to organic painting, also feeds his experimentation.

It is within this dynamic that Degottex succeeds in forging a personal pictorial language, where exploded forms and brilliant colors come together, sublimating the spontaneity of gesture while inscribing a structure specific to his imagination.

Today, works of lyrical abstraction, and in particular those by Jean Degottex, are highly appreciated by both collectors and amateurs, and fetch very high prices on the auction market.

His signature

Although there are variations, here is a first example of his signature :

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