Background
Daniel Dezeuze was born on February 1, 1942, in Alès, Languedoc-Roussillon, France. His father, the painter Georges Dezeuze, taught him the basics of the painting.
Sorbonne
University of Mexico
School of Fine Arts of Montpellier
Sorbonne
University of Mexico
Daniel Dezeuze was born on February 1, 1942, in Alès, Languedoc-Roussillon, France. His father, the painter Georges Dezeuze, taught him the basics of the painting.
Daniel studied Spanish literature at the School of Fine Arts of Montpellier. Daniel Dezeuze also obtained a scholarship from Mexico at the University of Mexico (Department of Architecture and Urbanism) in 1964 - 1965. After spending several years abroad he finished his doctorate in Comparative Literature at the Sorbonne in Paris in 1970.
Dezeuze's first radical work from 1967 "Stretcher covered in plastic film" is in the collection of the Centre Pompidou in Paris and was shown at the Guggenheim Museum as part of the Exhibition of Masterpieces from the Centre Pompidou.
Daniel's work over the years has been extremely varied in materials, including wood, gauze, found objects, and polyethylene and in tone, from the austere rigour of his flexible wooden ladders of the 1970s, to the ethereal lightness of his gauze pieces going on to the playfulness of his colourful Peintures qui perlent which are painted wooden cubes and beads attached to a rigid framework.
There are two main directions in his work: the first one is his deconstruction of painting and its components (Ladders, Trellises, Cut Out Gauzes, and Pavilions) and the second one is his creation of series of objects (Arms, Gathering Devices, and Receptacles) which evoke humanity's perennial activities.
Dezeuze's drawings also can be grouped in these same two directions with the addition of his sensitive and delightful evocations of nature in his series "La Vie Amoureuse des Plantes", subject of an exhibition at the Centre Pompidou in 1993, his numerous and colorful Butterflies and enigmatic Grotesques.
Daniel's exhibitions have been numerous in France and abroad. He exhibited regularly at the Yvon Lambert Gallery in Paris from 1971 until 1991 and since that date at the Daniel Templon Gallery in Paris. From 1977 to 2002, Dezeuze taught at the School of Fine Arts in Montpellier. In 1987, he stayed in China for the first time and exhibited there.
Daniel Dezeuze also has a considerable body of written work. In 1971 he founded the review "Peinture, cahiers théoriques" with Louis Cane and Marc Devade with the help of the review "Tel Quel." His theoretical articles from that review are included in the publication from the Ecole Nationale des Beaux-Arts de Paris of his writings.
Among his commissions must be mentioned the mosaic floor in the Church of Saint Laurent in Puy-en-Velay, his sculpture in the Tuileries Gardens, the optic fibre sculpture in the Toulouse subway and his redecoration, incorporating several of his works, of the Hôtel du Sully in Paris. He currently lives and works in Sète, France.
Untitled
unknown title
Blasons
Untitled
Untitled IV
unknown title
Untitled
Petite echelles pour vent d'Ouest
unknown title
Yeux delphique
Beading Painting
unknown title
Peintures sur Chevalet
Lattice
Stretcher (covered with a sheet of transparent plastic)
Untitled V
Peinture qui perle blanche
Untitled I
Beading Painting
Par une forêt obscure III
Daniel's work seeks to explore and question the concepts that underpin painting, galleries and space. The artist appropriates a wide variety of techniques, offering a reinterpretation of American art, both abstract and minimalist, while constantly experimenting with what are seen as basic materials: net, metal gauze, wood, fabric and metal.
Daniel Dezeuze is a founding member of the French group of artists called Supports/Surfaces from 1970 to 1972.
