Patrick Wright investigates the life and work of the enigmatic French poet turned painter Henri Michaux. Though associated with surrealism, he never adhered to a group, and he pursued his interests in Chinese calligraphy and Taoist philosophy to develop his own language of signs. Francis Bacon thought him better than Jackson Pollock at the "flung ink" technique, and Allen Ginsberg is said to have hailed him a genius, yet Michaux remains virtually unknown in Britain. Now London's Whitechapel Gallery is hoping to bring him to a new audience.
Producer Doug Traill-Stevenson