Bernard Réquichot

Bernard Réquichot was one of the key figures on the art scene in the 1950s. Marked by the "second wind of surrealism", his work from around 1955 was part of the gestural and materialist abstraction that was dominant at the time. Kneading the material with a knife, knotting inextricable webs or allowing "graphic traces" to invade the canvas, Réquichot experimented with a wide range of media: painting, collage, sculpture and even writing, all of which he pushed to the limit. A complex and tortured figure, Réquichot took his own life shortly before his second solo exhibition, organised by his gallery owner, Daniel Cordier.