From 18 September to 20 November 2025
Galerie Les Yeux Fertiles, 27 rue de Seine, Paris 6e
Opening on Wednesday 17 September 2025, 5 to 9 pm
A highlight took place at 7 pm with the presentation of the exhibition by Jean-Jacques Plaisance, followed by a reading of a unique book by Fred Deux, De l’autre, le cristal, from André Breton’s personal collection.
“All art is exorcism.” This statement by the German artist Otto Dix, made during the Nazi period, challenges us. Without being so categorical, what if certain artists, through their words, their writings and above all their works, also expressed an anxiety, even a suffering, and delivered a message to us?
Fred Deux (1924-2015), a singular figure in twentieth-century art and literature, developed a teeming body of work nourished by the exploration of the unconscious and the imagination. His graphic work, often close to automatism, sets organic forms and inner worlds in dialogue. Also a writer, he left a rare and inhabited literary body of work, in which poetry, memory and vision meet.
On Saturday 18 October 2025 at 5.30 pm, a new reading by Jean-Jacques Plaisance of Fred Deux’s unique book De l’autre, le cristal, followed by a presentation of the exhibition, in particular “The Coloured Sperms of 1973 and 1974, from the memory of events to a new, sublimated interiority”. A visual staging of the reading was made by the Amis de Cécile Reims et Fred Deux. A few new works joined the hanging for the last two weeks of the exhibition.
Artist: Fred Deux
Works shown
- Fred Deux, La Membrane, 1972, series of coloured sperms, graphite and cellulose paint on paper, 43.5 x 37 cm
- Fred Deux, Sans titre, 1969, Indian ink on paper, 54 x 37 cm
- Fred Deux, L’Inexistence, 1973, series of coloured sperms, graphite and cellulose paint on paper, 73 x 42.5 cm
- Fred Deux, L’Élan, 1974, series of coloured sperms, graphite and cellulose paint on paper, 58 x 41 cm
- Fred Deux, Maîtresse, 1970, Indian ink and watercolour on paper, 84 x 60 cm, Chave reference on the reverse
- Fred Deux, Sans titre, 1960, Indian ink on paper, 70 x 100 cm, provenance Galerie Daniel Cordier, exhibited 1963 Galerie Charpentier