This exquisite lithograph by Henri Michaux (1899–1984), titled Sans titre (Untitled), from the album XXe Siecle, Nouvelle serie N°7 (double) Juin 1956, originates from the 1956 edition published by Societe Internationale dArt XXe Siecle, Paris, under the direction of Gualtieri di San Lazzaro, editeur, Paris, and printed by Mourlot Freres, Paris, 1956. A compelling example of Michauxs psychologically charged abstraction, the work reflects his exploration of gesture, consciousness, and the inner terrain of emotion.
Executed as a lithograph on velin paper, this work measures 12.5 x 9.75 inches. Unsigned and unnumbered as issued. Printed by Mourlot Freres, Paris, one of the most esteemed ateliers of the 20th century.
Artwork Details:
Artist: Henri Michaux (1899–1984)
Title: Sans titre (Untitled)
Medium: Lithograph on velin paper
Dimensions: 12.5 x 9.75 inches (31.75 x 24.77 cm)
Inscription: Unsigned and unnumbered as issued
Date: 1956
Publisher: Societe Internationale dArt XXe Siecle, Paris, under the direction of Gualtieri di San Lazzaro, editeur, Paris
Printer: Mourlot Freres, Paris
Condition: Well preserved, consistent with age and medium
Provenance: From the album XXe Siecle, Nouvelle serie N°7 (double) Juin 1956, published by Societe Internationale dArt XXe Siecle, Paris; printed by Mourlot Freres, Paris, 1956
About the Publication:
Gualtieri di San Lazzaros XXe Siecle (Twentieth Century) was one of the most influential art journals of the modern era, founded in Paris in 1938 as a platform for the greatest painters, sculptors, and writers of the 20th century. San Lazzaro, a visionary editor, critic, and champion of modernism, believed that art and literature should exist in harmonious dialogue. Under his direction, the journal became an essential bridge between European modernism and international artistic movements, publishing special issues devoted to leading masters such as Picasso, Matisse, Chagall, Braque, Miro, Leger, Kandinsky, and Calder. Each issue included original lithographs, pochoirs, linocuts, or wood engravings produced by premier ateliers such as Mourlot, Lacouriere, and Atelier Jacomet, making XXe Siecle not only a scholarly record but also a collectible art object in its own right. The 1956 double issue, Nouvelle serie N°7, stands among the journals important mid century publications, reflecting the dynamic developments of postwar abstraction and modernist experimentation. Today, XXe Siecle remains a landmark in the history of art publishing, prized by museums, collectors, and scholars.
About the Artist:
Henri Michaux (1899–1984) was a profoundly influential Belgian born French painter, poet, and visionary explorer of the unconscious whose hallucinatory ink works, calligraphic abstractions, and psychologically charged compositions secured his place among the most original innovators of 20th century art, standing in dialogue with landmark modernists such as Pablo Picasso, Alexander Calder, Alberto Giacometti, Salvador Dali, Joan Miro, Wassily Kandinsky, Marcel Duchamp, and Man Ray while simultaneously forging a path so uniquely his own that no movement could fully contain him; initially emerging as a writer shaped by Symbolism, Eastern philosophy, and metaphysical inquiry, Michaux transitioned into painting to develop a radical visual vocabulary of invented alphabets, automatic gestures, trance like marks, and biomorphic forms that chart the inner topography of emotion and consciousness rather than the visible world; though independent from Surrealism, he channeled its dream logic, automatism, and psychic excavation while merging elements of Tachisme, Art Informel, and lyrical abstraction into a style that anticipated aspects of Abstract Expressionism, action painting, and contemporary calligraphic art; his famed mescaline experiments, chronicled in works such as Miserable Miracle and The Turbulent Infinity, further expanded his artistic language, producing vibrating, frenetic ink storms and visionary spatial fields that influenced major artists including Cy Twombly, Zao Wou Ki, Brice Marden, and Julie Mehretu, among others; celebrated by writers and philosophers like Andre Gide and Paul Celan, Michaux became a critical bridge between modernist abstraction and psychological, literary, and mystical exploration, and his work is now held in leading collections including the Centre Pompidou, Tate Modern, MoMA, the Guggenheim Museum, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Musee dArt Moderne de Paris, and the Menil Collection; the strength of his market continues to reflect his enduring relevance, with his highest recorded auction result achieved on June 4, 2014, when the painting Composition sold for 1,323,000 USD at Sothebys Paris, underscoring global demand for his hauntingly original and psychologically transformative art.
Henri Michaux, Michaux lithograph, XXe Siecle 1956.
