Henri Michaux (; 24 May 1899 – 19 October 1984) was a Belgian-born French poet, writer and painter. Michaux is renowned for his strange, highly original poetry and prose, and also for his art: the Paris Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum in New York had major shows of his work in 1978 (see below, Visual Arts). His

autobiographical An autobiography, sometimes informally called an autobio, is a self-written account of one's own life, providing a personal narrative that reflects on the author's experiences, memories, and insights. This genre allows individuals to share thei ...

texts that chronicle his psychedelic experiments with

LSD Lysergic acid diethylamide, commonly known as LSD (from German ; often referred to as acid or lucy), is a semisynthetic, hallucinogenic compound derived from ergot, known for its powerful psychological effects and serotonergic activity. I ...

and

mescaline Mescaline, also known as mescalin or mezcalin, and in chemical terms 3,4,5-trimethoxyphenethylamine, is a natural product, naturally occurring psychedelic drug, psychedelic alkaloid, protoalkaloid of the substituted phenethylamine class, found ...

include ''Miserable Miracle'' and ''The Major Ordeals of the Mind and the Countless Minor Ones''. He is recognised for his idiosyncratic travelogues and books of

art criticism Art criticism is the discussion or evaluation of visual art. Art critics usually criticize art in the context of aesthetics or the theory of beauty. A goal of art criticism is the pursuit of a rational basis for art appreciation but it is quest ...

. Michaux is also known for his stories about Plume – "a peaceable man" – perhaps the most unenterprising hero in the history of literature, a character subject to many misfortunes. His poetic works have often been republished in France, where they are studied along with major poets of French literature. In 1955 he became a citizen of France, and he lived the rest of his life there. He became a friend of Romanian pessimist philosopher Emil Cioran around the same time, along with other literary luminaries in France. In 1965 he won the grand prix national des Lettres, which he refused to accept, as he did every honor he was accorded in his life.

Biography

Travels

In 1930 and 1931, Michaux visited Japan, China and India. The result of this trip was the book ''A Barbarian in Asia''. Asian culture became one of his biggest influences. The philosophy of

Buddhism Buddhism, also known as Buddhadharma and Dharmavinaya, is an Indian religion and List of philosophies, philosophical tradition based on Pre-sectarian Buddhism, teachings attributed to the Buddha, a wandering teacher who lived in the 6th or ...

and calligraphy later became principal subjects of many of his poems and inspired many of his drawings. He also visited

Ecuador Ecuador, officially the Republic of Ecuador, is a country in northwestern South America, bordered by Colombia on the north, Peru on the east and south, and the Pacific Ocean on the west. It also includes the Galápagos Province which contain ...

and published a travelogue book of the same name. His travels across the Americas finished in Brazil in 1939, and he stayed there for two years.

Visual arts

Michaux was a highly original visual artist, associated with the Tachiste movement in the 1940s and 50s, although that describes only a small part of his artistic achievement--for example, his hallucinatory representations of faces and heads. His work often makes use of dense, suggestively gestural strokes that incorporate elements of calligraphy,

asemic writing Asemic writing is a wordless open Semantics, semantic form of writing. The word ''asemic'' means "having no specific semantic content", or "without the smallest unit of meaning". With the non-specificity of asemic writing there comes a vacuum of ...

, and

abstract expressionism Abstract expressionism in the United States emerged as a distinct art movement in the aftermath of World War II and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s, a shift from the American social realism of the 1930s influenced by the Great Depressi ...

. The

Museum of Modern Art The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) is an art museum located in Midtown Manhattan, New York City, on 53rd Street (Manhattan), 53rd Street between Fifth Avenue, Fifth and Sixth Avenues. MoMA's collection spans the late 19th century to the present, a ...

in Paris and the Guggenheim Museum in New York both had major shows of his work in 1978.

Adaptations

Japanese animator Ryo Orikasa adapted Michaux's poetry for the 2023 short film '' Miserable Miracle'', winner of the top animated short prize at the

Ottawa International Animation Festival The Ottawa International Animation Festival is an annual animated film and media festival that takes place in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The OIAF was founded in 1975, with the first festival held from August 10 to 15 in 1976. Initially organized b ...

.Ramin Zahed
"Poetry in Motion: Ryo Orikasa’s ‘Miserable Miracle’ Animates the Musings of Henri Michaux"
''

Animation Magazine ''Animation Magazine'' is an American print magazine and website covering the animation industry and education, as well as visual effects. The print magazine is published 10 times a year in the United States. History ''Animation Magazine'' was f ...

'', November 7, 2023.

Works

His complete works were published by Gallimard in three volumes of the Pléiade series, 1998-2004. * ''Cas de folie circulaire'' (1922) * ''Les Rêves et la Jambe'' (1923) * ''Fables des origines'' (Disque vert, 1923) * ''Qui je fus'' (1927). ''Who I Was'' * ''Mes propriétés'' (Fourcade, 1929). ''My Properties'' * ''La Jetée'' (1929) * ''Ecuador'' (1929). ''Ecuador: A Travel Journal'', trans. Robin Magowan (1970) * ''Un certain Plume'' (Editions du Carrefour, 1930; revised 1938 and 1963 as ''Plume''). ''A Certain Plume'', trans. Richard Sieburth (New York Review Books, 2018) * ''Un barbare en Asie'' (1933; revised 1945). ''A Barbarian in Asia'', trans. Sylvia Beach (1949) * ''La nuit remue'' (1935). ''The Night Moves'' * ''Voyage en Grande Garabagne'' (1936). ''Voyage to Great Garaban'' * ''La Ralentie'' (1937) * ''Plume'' précédé de ''Lointain Intérieur'' (1938; revised 1963). ''Plume'' preceded by ''Faraway Within.'' 1963 edition includes the "Postface" * ''Peintures'' (GLM, 1939). ''Paintings'' * ''Au pays de la magie'' (1941). ''In the Land of Magic'' * ''Arbres des tropiques'' (1942) * ''Épreuves, Exorcismes : 1940-1944'' (1945). ''Ordeals, Exorcisms: 1940-1944'' * ''Ici, Poddema'' (1946) * ''Peintures et dessins'' (Le point du jour, 1946) * ''Meidosems'' (Le point du jour, 1948). ''Meidosems: Poems and Lithographs'', trans. Elizabeth R. Jackson (1992) * ''Nous deux encore'' (10 Lambert, 1948) * ''Poésie pour pouvoir'' (René Drouin, 1949) * ''Passages'' (1950) * ''Mouvements (recueil)'' (1952) * ''Face aux verrous'' (1954) * ''Misérable Miracle (La mescaline)'' (1956). ''Miserable Miracle'', trans. Louise Varèse (1963) * '' L'Infini turbulent'' (1957). ''Infinite Turbulence'', trans. Michael Fineberg (1975) * ''Paix dans les brisements'' (1959) * ''Connaissance par les gouffres'' (1961). ''Light Through Darkness'', trans. Haakon Chevalier (1964) * ''Vents et Poussières'' (1962) * ''Désagrégation'' (1965) * ''Les Grandes Épreuves de l'esprit et les innombrables petites'' (1966). ''The Major Ordeals of the Mind'', trans. Richard Howard (1974) * ''Vers la complétude (Saisie et Dessaisies)'' (GLM, 1966) * ''Façons d'endormi, façons d'éveillé'' (1969). ''Ways of Sleepers, Ways of Wakers'' * ''Poteaux d'angle'' (1971). ''Tent Posts'', trans. Lynn Hoggard (1997) * ''En rêvant à partir de peintures énigmatiques'' (Fata Morgana, 1972). ''Dreams Like Enigmatic Paintings'', trans. Michael Eales (2018) * ''Émergences, Résurgences'' (Skira, 1972) * ''Bras cassé'' (Fata Morgana, 1973) * ''Moments, traversées du temps'' (1973). ''Moments, Crossings of Time'' * ''Quand tombent les toits'' (1973) * ''Par la voie des rythmes'' (Fata Morgana, 1974) * ''Idéogrammes en Chine'' (Fata Morgana, 1975). ''Ideograms in China'', trans. Gustaf Sobin (2002) * ''Coups d'arrêt'' (1975) * ''Face à ce qui se dérobe'' (1976) * ''Les ravagés'' (Fata Morgana, 1976) * ''Jours de silence'' (Fata Morgana, 1978) * ''Saisir'' (Fata Morgana, 1979) * ''Une voie pour l'insubordination'' (Fata Morgana, 1980) * ''Affrontements'' (Fata Morgana, 1981) * ''Chemins cherchés, chemins perdus, transgressions'' (1982). ''Paths Looked For, Paths Lost, Transgressions'' * ''Les commencements'' (Fata Morgana, 1983) * ''Le jardin exalté'' (Fata Morgana, 1983) * ''Par surprise'' (Fata Morgana, 1983). ''By Surprise'', trans. Randolph Hough (1987) * ''Par des traits'' (Fata Morgana, 1984) * ''Déplacements, Dégagements'' (1985; posthumous). ''Spaced, Displaced'', trans. David and Helen Constantine (1992) * ''Rencontres'' (with Paolo Marinotti) (1991; posthumous) * ''Jeux d'encre. Trajet Zao Wou-Ki'' (1993; posthumous) * ''En songeant à l'avenir'' (1994; posthumous) * ''J'excuserais une assemblée anonyme...'' (1994; posthumous) * ''À distance'' (Mercure de France, 1997; posthumous) * ''Sitôt lus. Lettres à Franz Hellens. 1922-1952'' (Fayard, 1999; posthumous) * ''Paul Klee'' (Fata Morgana, 2012; posthumous) * ''Donc c'est non, lettres réunies'', ed. Jean-Luc Outers (Gallimard, 2016; posthumous) * ''Coups d'arrêt suivi d’Ineffable vide'' (Éditions Unes, 2018; posthumous)

Selections prepared by Michaux

* ''L'Espace du dedans'' (1944; revised and expanded in 1966). ''Selected Writings: The Space Within'', partial translation by

Richard Ellmann Richard David Ellmann, Fellow of the British Academy, FBA (March 15, 1918 – May 13, 1987) was an American Literary criticism, literary critic and biographer of the Irish writers James Joyce, Oscar Wilde, and W. B. Yeats, William Butler Yeats. ...

(New Directions, 1951; reprinted in 1968). Translation contains selections from: ''Qui je fus'', ''Ecuador'', ''Mes propriétés'', ''Un certain Plume'', ''La nuit remue'', ''Voyage en Grande Garabagne'', ''Lointain intérieur'', ''Peintures'', and ''Au pays de la magie'', with "The March into the Tunnel" added from ''Épreuves, Exorcismes''. * ''Ailleurs'' (1948). Compiles ''Voyage en Grande Garabagne'' (1936), ''Au pays de la magie'' (1941) and ''Ici, Poddema'' (1946) * ''La Vie dans les plis'' (1949). ''Life in the Folds'', trans. Darren Jackson (2016). Compiles ''Liberté d'action'' (1945), ''Apparitions'' (1946), ''Meidosems'' (illustrated edition, 1948), ''Lieux inexprimables'' (1947) and ''Vieillesse de Pollagoras'' (previously unpublished) * ''L'Espace du dedans'' (second edition, 1966). Revised and expanded with selections from ''Épreuves, exorcismes'', ''La vie dans les plis'', ''Passages'', ''Lecture'', ''Face aux verrous'', ''Misérable miracle'', and ''Paix dans les brisements''.

Compilations in English

* ''Selected Writings: The Space Within'', partial translation by

(New Directions, 1951; reprinted in 1968) * ''Darkness Moves: An Henri Michaux Anthology, 1927-1984'', trans. and ed. David Ball (University of California Press, 1994) * ''Michaux'', trans. Teo Savory (Unicorn Press, 1967) * ''Henri Michaux: A Selection'', trans. Michael Fineberg (1979) * ''Someone Wants to Steal My Name and Other Poems'', ed. Nin Andrews (2004) * ''Stroke by Stroke'', trans. Richard Sieburth (2006). Compiles ''Saisir'' (1979) and ''Par des traits'' (1984) * ''By Surprise'', trans. Randolph Hough ( Hanuman Books, 1987) * ''Toward Totality & Selected Works, 1929–1973'', trans. Louise Landes-Levi (Shivastan, 2006) * ''Thousand Times Broken: Three Books'', trans. Gillian Conoley (City Lights, 2014). Compiles ''400 Men on the Cross'', "Peace in the Breaking", and ''Watchtowers on Targets'' * ''Life in the Folds'', trans. Darren Jackson (2016) * ''Storms Under the Skin: Selected Poems, 1927-1954'', trans. Jane Draycott (Two Rivers Press, 2017)

References

External links

*
Reelyredd's Poetry Pages
French text of Michaux poem "Ma Vie" with English translation
Major paintings of Henri Michaux
{{DEFAULTSORT:Michaux, Henri Art Informel and Tachisme painters 1899 births 1984 deaths Belgian painters Belgian poets in French French fantasy writers Modern painters People from Namur (city) Belgian emigrants to France Naturalized citizens of France French male poets 20th-century French poets 20th-century French male writers