Michel-Henry materials

We have collected materials such as magazine articles about Michel Henry, a master French painter representative of the latter half of the 20th century, and letters to Galerie Adekat. Let's shed light on Michel Henry's works, which continue to move people around the world even in the 21st century, from various angles.

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1: Letter from Michel Henry to Galerie Adekat 

I am a painter of nature. I love all trees, fields, forests, flowers, and fruits. That is why I received the Agricultural Merit Award. Many people desire to receive this award, but it is rare for an artist to receive it. This work is a bouquet of wild flowers. It is a very simple and rustic piece. Without a painter, poppies would not be so celebrated. Because cut poppies placed in a vase quickly fade. Without a painter, you would not see poppies in a vase with other flowers. Because even if other flowers bloom for a long time, poppies quickly wither, so they cannot be arranged together. In other words, poppies are blooming without wilting due to the magic of the painter. Magic is the painter's imagination. Ordinary flowers absorb water from a vase to survive, but poppies, on the contrary, have their sap flow into the water and quickly wither. When poppies are immersed in vase water, they wilt at an astonishing speed. It is a mystery of nature. Poppies are delicate flowers. The magic of the painter is to give eternal life on canvas to poppies that wither in an instant.

 

2: Univers des Arts, July & August 2013 combined issue

Michel Henry Feature 

Even at the recent "Painters of Le Marais" exhibition, Michel Henry's appearance still garnered attention. Even though Michel Henry is extremely modest, his significant presence in the art market is always felt. 

Michel Henry is a particularly active figurative painter among his generation. For 40 years, he has consistently been a highly valued painter supported by the French people. This can be readily seen by looking at his list of collectors and patrons. His paintings have continued to fascinate presidential couples, ministers, national dignitaries, and famous actors and singers. If you are invited into the beautiful living rooms of the French elite, you will likely see a Michel Henry painting. 

Today, Michel Henry participates in many events, and his paintings are exhibited, exported, and sold. They are counted among important items at auctions, attracting customers from Europe, America, Asia, Japan, and Korea. In these countries, the master Michel Henry is loved as a very rare and outstanding painter. The clear, transparent paintings created by his matiere (texture of the painting) are a testament to his unique talent and continue to create an eternal glory of beauty and love.

 

 3: Univers des Arts, April 2004 issue

Univers des Arts x Michel Henry Interview 

 Univers des Arts: Please tell us about your paintings. 

Michel Henry: For me, painting techniques and knowledge are very important. The older I get, the more I realize that talent alone is not enough to paint. Talent only blossoms when it is supported by technique, that is, diligent practice. Therefore, you cannot call yourself a painter after drawing four or five pieces. It is impossible for a painting to be good by chance or to fail by chance. Amateur painters do not know why a painting turned out well or why it failed, but professionals know the reason. If technique is the basis of everything, then drawing is the basis of technique. When looking at a tableau (oil painting), one should know that beneath the colors there is drawing, composition, and architecture. As one would understand by studying great painters, there are no painters who do not have perfected techniques through training. Only after mastering techniques does a painter's originality become complete. 

Univers des Arts: Which painter resonates with you the most? 

Michel Henry: My favorite painter? I prefer Vuillard to Bonnard, and Staël to Klee. For me, Vuillard is lively and straightforward. As for Staël, he starts from nature and arrives at abstraction. Klee goes in the opposite direction, from abstraction to nature.

 Univers des Arts: What about Impressionism?

 Michel Henry: Impressionism is too unanimously popular. Today, Impressionism seems self-contained, but it is just a trend of a certain era. Yet, French painting is thought to have stopped in the century of Louis XV. Even if art reached its completion in the era of Louis XV, art does not stop there.

 Univers des Arts: I would like to ask about your recent inspirations. Do your inspirations change over time? 

Michel Henry: My inspiration has remained the same, but it evolves. My first tableau (oil painting) was a bouquet of mimosas in front of a window. The background was painted from imagination. That imagined background was the ramparts of Langres, my hometown. At that time, I also painted curtains.

 Univers des Arts: How did the originality of your paintings come about? 

Michel Henry: It was born out of a fateful flaw for me. In other words, the flaw became the greatest charm. When I started painting, I was indifferent to values and only interested in colors. For example, red has a subdued value, but I considered it a brilliant color and used it as a bright value. As a result, although the background of a painting is usually bright, I made it subdued. Still, it turned out to be a quite presentable painting. For me, color takes precedence over value. I still remember my professor, Chaplin Midi, lamenting, "You have the good fortune to complete paintings ignoring values, while I always have to consider values when I paint."

 Univers des Arts: Can you free yourself from what you see and your motifs? 

Michel Henry: Of course. Fortunately, painting is artificial, so it is not the reality itself that we see with our eyes. Rather, the artist discerns what lies behind that reality.

 Univers des Arts: So, am I right to assume you are blessed with a very rich imagination?

 Michel Henry: I don't know. I learn from everything. For example, when I take a walk, I look around me. When I start a tableau, I already know what needs to be done. Even when an idea isn't fully formed, it suddenly flashes as I progress.

 Univers des Arts: Please forgive me if I'm mistaken, but you seem to paint quite quickly.

 Michel Henry: Yes, I paint at a fast pace. There are even better painters than me who paint faster. I am efficient. The speed of painting depends on the artist's personality. Molière said in "The Misanthrope" that "it's not about how long it takes." The quality of a work is not proportional to the time spent creating it. There are times when I am very lucky, and at those times, I feel like I'm exceeding my own limits. I even surprise myself. You could call it the magic of painting.

4: Univers des Arts, September 2003 issue

A work of art is meant to be appreciated. It is not something to be discarded in a corner of a studio, unseen by anyone. For a work of art to live, it must be seen and evoke emotion. Michel Henry is not an egoist. He quietly and poetically expresses what he feels and sees. Visitors to the Esther Gallery at the Musée Jean Guien in Saint-Rémy will find Michel Henry's works beautifully balanced. The beauty of pure lines, the transparent and brilliant reds, and the browns that highlight the luminous parts, all contribute to the delicate and excellent talent of the painter, transforming the real world into Michel Henry's world. Cherries, poppies, and Parisian landscapes are everyday objects for us, not particularly noteworthy, but these objects are elevated by Michel Henry into an elegant painterly world. Bouquets of flowers in transparent vases are often placed by windows, painted against the backdrop of Venetian churches or Notre Dame, creating a magically beautiful world. Michel Henry's crystal transparency, the lightness of his bouquets, and the strong draftsmanship seen in his buildings are often praised, and this cannot be denied. Indeed, it is so. However, we also want to share the painter's admiration and passion for simple yet essential things in reality. Patrice de la Perrière

  

6: Univers des Arts, March 2001 issue

Michel Henry Feature 

Michel Henry's paintings have a special character. He created an original pictorial form. The dominant color plays a significant role in each painting. The base colors of red or blue are sung, and the painter allows us to drift through their tonal world until we are satisfied. Michel Henry's innate talent possesses a decorative quality based on sound aesthetics. Each object, vase, and fruit is arranged in the foreground. These familiar, approachable, and easy-to-see objects are simple, adding color to the canvas and serving as elements of composition, a place where drifting gazes can always return.

Michel Henry's undeniable talent shines particularly brightly when he paints flowers. The flowers that Michel Henry brings to canvas possess a gentle beauty and grace. With his extraordinary skill, he conveys a quiet tenderness from the flowers, a sense of peace and fleeting impermanence. Michel Henry leads us into his world of images. However, he does not take us too far from our daily lives. Michel Henry's world is a space where the air is slightly clearer than in the real world, objects are lighter, and our gaze embarks on a journey filled with distant romantic adventures.

 

7: Univers des Arts, Summer 2000 issue 

Michel Henry Feature

To create is to express impressions with symbols and colors, imbued with soul. 

The above words were spoken by Michel Henry just after graduating from the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts in Paris, shortly after the end of the war.

Influenced by the painter Gruber, while his peers were all gravitating towards miserabilism, Michel Henry, with a smile, declared his defiance against the fashionable miserabilism of the era: "Why should one be ashamed of being happy?" Michel Henry's art can be seen as a struggle for happiness and harmony. His blazing flowers, brimming with color and vitality, can be considered his banner. Furthermore, the grandeur of composition he acquired during his studies at Casa Velázquez further enhanced the beauty of his bouquets. Michel Henry's still lifes are like lessons in life and tenderness, generously using paint to enrich colors and textures. Red explodes fully, depicting the vitality of flowers. Ruby, vivid rose, and bright vermillion dance, adorning the most beautiful cities in the world. Even the beauty of these cities seems modest compared to the exuberantly blooming, vibrant flowers. Michel Henry, an admirer of nature, relegates Paris and Venice to the background of his canvases, reminding us that human creations cannot compare to the beauty of a single poppy. Here, beauty lies hidden very close to us, in its simplest, most expressive, and most ephemeral form. For if Michel Henry paints the overwhelming beauty of flowers, it is also because he knows their fragility. The bouquet will delight our eyes for only a few more hours before withering in the transparent vase. When we look beyond the canvas, we realize that Michel Henry's paintings contain both sweetness and bitterness. From those bouquets of poppies and roses, Ronsard's poem seems to echo:

"Lovely maiden, maiden full of fresh youth, come, pluck the fruit of youth, before old age comes to take away your beauty like this flower."