"A Barbarian in Asia": Henri Michaux's Works in Ink, 1927-1955

This dissertation examines the early works in ink by Henri Michaux, executed between 1927 and 1955. Best known for his mescaline drawings and large ink paintings of the mid-1950s and 1960s, Michaux experimented extensively with ink in the preceding decades. Michaux's "marks" must be considered in relation to the ideas and practices of Surrealism and Existentialism that dominated cultural discourse during this period, as well as in relation to Michaux's lifelong interest in Asian art and thought. A contextual and historical analysis reveals Michaux's dialogues with contemporary artists like Paul Klee, Max Ernst, Jean Dubuffet and Georges Mathieu. This discussion not only distinguishes Michaux's project from his peers, but also revises the common portrayal of the artist as a reclusive individualist. A writer as well as an artist, Michaux's practice was literary as well as artistic and this study also considers his dialogue with the contemporary writings of Georges Bataille, Maurice Merleau-Ponty and Jean-Paul Sartre, among others. Central to Michaux's practice was an exploration of the relationship between writing and drawing, between lingual and retinal signs. Evoking archaic scripts and prehistoric cave engravings, Michaux's works explore the origins and nature of "signs". Fundamental questions Michaux asked include: At what point does a mark become a sign? And at what point does a line become a form in space? Related to these formal questions into the nature of "signs" are much broader ones that deal with the nature of human existence. Michaux's works challenge the fixity of Western dualisms with notions of fluidity and paradox rooted in Taoism and related to contemporary phenomenology. Michaux's visual explorations at the limits of legibility thus interface with his reflections on the limits of "being." How Michaux negotiated this slippery liminal realm with marks in ink is analyzed in the course of this study.