Pierre Bettencourt

First a writer and poet, then a visual artist, Pierre Bettencourt followed Paul Valéry's classes at the Collège de France, then passionate about theater, he published his own texts from home as well as those of Henri Michaux, Antonin Artaud, Francis Ponge, Guillaume Apollinaire and Jean Dubuffet. He writes mainly in Normandy and concentrates on his plastic creations in Burgundy. He and his great friend Jean Dubuffet started chasing butterflies from 1953. It was at this time that he created his first high reliefs, producing a series of works that were completely unique in the artistic creation of the post-war. His works are distinguished by the use of unconventional materials such as eggshells, slate, coconut fiber, pine cones and putty, thus relating them to the field of Art Brut. These high reliefs are meticulous assemblages, often large, and address fantastical subjects by contrasting the spiritual and the human. This is how he gives shape to his disturbing fantastic figures mixing divine, unknown cult, and eroticism.

Bettencourt was influenced by a multitude of sources, including lost civilizations, mythology, as well as his travels to India, Oceania, Mexico, Egypt and Europe. Surrealism is also a major influence in his work. Some art critics have called his high reliefs post-surrealist and thanato-erotic because of their themes.