Jean Cortot

[1] A student of Othon Friesz, Corton was part of the Scale group which he established with Jacques Busse, Calmettes, Patrix, Geneviève Asse and others.

[1] Working initially on figurative landscapes, notable works included his studies in the shipyard of La Ciotat (1947-1950), the landscape of the Ardèche, Still Life (1955-1956), variations on his Cities Series (1957-1958), his Antiques (1962) and his Combat Series (1967).

A biography published by the Diane de Polignac Gallery records: "Cortot covered his painted works with philosophical and poetic texts.

The Fondation Maeght, which holds examples of his work, notes that, as his approach developed; "his paintings included words, then quotes, before being filled with whole poems.

The concern for elegance in the stroke, for the projection of the line, for curves and flourishes, we assigned to the civilizations of ideograms and arabesques, leaving our script with a purely informative role, a role devoid of ornament, script reduced to its austere legibility .... and it is precisely in its contradiction thereof that Jean Cortot's work derived its singularity.