Guy de Cointet (1934–1983) was a French-born artist based in California who created text and sculptural works, often combining them as props and stage sets in theatrical performance pieces.

Biography

Guy de Cointet was born in Paris in 1934, the son of a military officer. He attended high school with Yves Saint Laurent and the fashion photographer Jérôme Ducrot, both of whom shared and influenced de Cointet's interest in fashion. After unsuccessfully competing in a 1952 clothing design competition sponsored by the

Chambre Syndicale de la Haute Couture Chambre (French for ''chamber'') may refer to: * Chambre des Pairs * Chambre des Députés * Chambre de bonne * Chambre introuvable * Valet de chambre * Chambre Ardente People with the surname * Alan Chambré * Calcot Chambre See also * Chamb ...

, de Cointet attended the

École des Beaux-Arts de Nancy École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing in région Île-de-France * Éco ...

. In 1956 he moved to Paris, where he worked as an illustrator for the magazines

Vogue Vogue may refer to: Business * ''Vogue'' (magazine), a US fashion magazine ** British ''Vogue'', a British fashion magazine ** '' Vogue Adria'', a fashion magazine for former Yugoslav countries ** ''Vogue Arabia'', an Arab fashion magazine ** ' ...

and Jardin des Mondes. de Cointet moved to New York in 1965, following brief stays in the

Canary Islands The Canary Islands (; ) or Canaries are an archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean and the southernmost Autonomous communities of Spain, Autonomous Community of Spain. They are located in the northwest of Africa, with the closest point to the cont ...

and in central France near

Limoges Limoges ( , , ; , locally ) is a city and Communes of France, commune, and the prefecture of the Haute-Vienne Departments of France, department in west-central France. It was the administrative capital of the former Limousin region. Situated o ...

. Shortly after arriving in New York, de Cointet was introduced to the sculptor Larry Bell by their mutual friend

Susan Hoffman Susan Hoffman is an American quilt artist. Life She began quilting while still in high school, and with her friend and fellow quilt artist Molly Upton, opened a small shop to sell artwork in her hometown in Vermont. Hoffman attended college at t ...

. Bell hired de Cointet as an assistant, working first at Bell's studio in New York. He later followed Bell to

Venice Beach, California Venice ( ; ; , formerly ) is a city in northeastern Italy and the capital of the Veneto Regions of Italy, region. It is built on a group of 118 islands that are separated by expanses of open water and by canals; portions of the city are li ...

, where de Cointet would reside until his death in 1983. Between 1975 and 1977 he taught at the

Otis Art Institute Otis College of Art and Design is a Private university, private Art school, art and design school in Los Angeles, California, United States. Established in 1918, it was the city's first independent professional school of art. The main campus is l ...

in Los Angeles, giving courses focusing on

performance art Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a pu ...

Artwork

Guy de Cointet's text works on canvas and on paper were based on systems of

encoding In communications and Data processing, information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter (alphabet), letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes data compression, shortened or ...

or abstracting text, such as by

mirror writing Mirror writing is formed by writing in the direction that is the reverse of the natural way for a given language, such that the result is the mirror image of normal writing: it appears normal when reflected in a mirror. It is sometimes used as ...

. These pieces used found text from popular culture, everyday conversation or literary sources, often creating a humorous, droll, ironic, or melancholic effect. He produced several encrypted publications, including a completely encrypted newspaper titled ''ACRCIT''. Silkscreen printed by Pierre Picot, a French artist teaching at

CalArts The California Institute of the Arts (CalArts) is a private art school in Santa Clarita, California. It was incorporated in 1961 as the first degree-granting institution of higher learning in the US created specifically for students of both the ...

, ''ACRCIT'' was distributed for free through newspaper boxes across Los Angeles. His performance pieces combined literary puzzle or codes and the tropes of TV

soap opera A soap opera (also called a daytime drama or soap) is a genre of a long-running radio or television Serial (radio and television), serial, frequently characterized by melodrama, ensemble casts, and sentimentality. The term ''soap opera'' originat ...

, drawing inspiration from the works of

Raymond Roussel Raymond Roussel (; 20 January 1877 – 14 July 1933) was a French poet, novelist, playwright, musician, and chess enthusiast. Through his novels, poems, and plays he exerted a profound influence on certain groups within 20th century French litera ...

. The pieces were performed by actors such as

Factory A factory, manufacturing plant or production plant is an industrial facility, often a complex consisting of several buildings filled with machinery, where workers manufacture items or operate machines which process each item into another. Th ...

'superstar'

Viva Viva may refer to: Companies and organisations * Viva (network operator), a Dominican mobile network operator * Viva Energy, an Australian petroleum company * Viva Entertainment, a Philippine media company * Viva Films, a Philippine film company ...

and diminutive comedian

Billy Barty Billy Barty (born William John Bertanzetti; October 25, 1924 – December 23, 2000) was an American actor and activist. In adult life, he stood tall, due to cartilage–hair hypoplasia dwarfism. Because of his short stature, he was often cast i ...

. Theater critic Frantisek Deak once wrote of Cointet's

structuralist Structuralism is an intellectual current and methodological approach, primarily in the social sciences, that interprets elements of human culture by way of their relationship to a broader system. It works to uncover the structural patterns tha ...

approach that the artist juxtaposed "lifelike casual conversation with contrived literary language ... ointingout that both are particular styles and that, with a certain distance, the casual conversation will appear contrived as well." Deak was specifically referring to plays such as ''Tell Me'' (1979), in which fashionably attired actresses variously describe a white cardboard square featuring the black capital letters A, D, M, and T. His work has influenced that of

Paul McCarthy Paul McCarthy (born August 4, 1945) is an American artist who lives and works in Los Angeles, California. Life McCarthy was born in Salt Lake City, Utah, in 1945. He studied art at Weber State University in Ogden, Utah, and later continued to ...

, Mike Kelley, and Catherine Sullivan, among others.

Selected works

Performances

* ''Lost at Sea'' (1975) * ''Five Sisters'' (1982) * ''Ethiopia'' (1976) * ''Iglu'', ''Ramona'', ''Cigar'', (1977) * ''Tell Me'' (1979) * ''The Bridegroom'' (his last work, never performed in his lifetime) ''Ethiopia'', ''Iglu'', ''Cigar'', and ''Ramona'' were collaborations with the artist Robert Wilhite. ''Five Sisters'' was a collaboration with artist

Eric Orr Eric Orr (1939–1998) was an American artist who lived and worked in Venice, California from 1965 to 1998. Before moving to Los Angeles in 1965, Orr was a civil rights worker in Mississippi. A key figure of the Light and Space movement, Orr dev ...

Books and publications

* ''A Captain from Portugal'' (1972) * ''A Few Drawings by Guy de Cointet'' (1975) * ''ACRCIT'' (newspaper, 1975)

Selected exhibitions

* ''Who's That Guy?'', MAMCO, Geneva, 2004 * ''Making Words With Things'', CRAC, Séte, 2006 * ''Guy de Cointet'', Le Quartier, Quimper, curated by

Frédéric Paul Frédéric Paul (born in 1959) is a French curator and writer who works and lives in Vannes and Paris, France. Career Paul was former director of the F.R.A.C. Limousin (Limoges, France) from 1990 to 2000, and of the Domaine de Kerguéhennec from ...

, 2011

References

External links

Guy de Cointet at Air de Paris gallery

* https://web.archive.org/web/20120503192039/http://percept.home.cyberverse.com/decointet/ Catalogue of works on paper on the Percept Gallery site]
''Guy de Cointet''
by Judith Hoffberg at ''ArtScene'' * Guy de Cointet'
''Tell me'', 1979
at Air de Paris, November 17, 2006.
''Guy de Cointet: Making Words With Things''
Art Review, February 2007 {{DEFAULTSORT:Cointet, Guy de 1934 births 1983 deaths Sculptors from Paris École des Beaux-Arts alumni French emigrants to the United States Sculptors from Los Angeles