Judit Reigl

Judit Reigl was one of the few women artists to be part of the post-war action painting movement. Reigl’s work was the result of a grappling with her materials, springing from the very motion of her creative gestures, a physical energy taking place in space-time.

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The painter Judit Reigl’s early life and artistic training

Born in 1923 in Kaposvár, Hungary, Judit Reigl studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Budapest between 1941 and 1945. Thanks to a scholarship, Reigl was able to travel to Italy, where she spent nearly two years studying in Rome, Venice and Verona between 1946 and 1948. After several failed attempts, Reigl succeeded in fleeing Hungary but was arrested in Austria, where she was imprisoned for a fortnight before escaping again. After a long journey—partly on foot—that took Reigl through Munich, Brussels and Lille, she finally arrived in Paris in June 1950.

Judit Reigl and surrealism (1950–1954)

In Paris, Reigl was reunited with her friend, the Hungarian painter Simon Hantai, who introduced her to André Breton—the leader of the surrealist movement—in 1954. Drawn to the practice of automatic writing, Reigl frequented surrealist circles and exhibited in galleries with close ties to the movement. André Breton wrote the preface to the catalogue of Reigl’s first solo exhibition, which was presented at the À l’Étoile Scellée gallery in Paris in 1954. It was there that she met Max Ernst and Roberto Matta.

Reigl pushed the practice of automatic writing to its very limits. In contrast to traditional surrealism—which drew on dreamlike iconography, remaining faithful to figurative painting—Reigl’s work strived for a level of absolute automatism, both psychological and physical, that explored the unconscious and, from 1953 onwards, detached itself from all notions of representation. Discussing her approach, Reigl explained: “My entire body takes part in the work, ‘commensurate with arms wide open’. I write in the given space with gestures, beats, impulses.”

Judit Reigl and the Éclatement series (1955–1958)

 Through Reigl’s combative engagement with her materials, her work evolved, leading to the creation of the Éclatement [Outburst] series—a series marked by eruptions of material emerging from the tension of her creative gestures. Describing the series, Agnès Berecz wrote: “The series Éclatement, like explosive cards of the material touching the canvas, represents the confrontation between the surface and the body, the struggle that both constructs and destructs material and energy […] The painting literally explodes in the pictorial field with a centrifugal motion, directing the gaze outside the frame, and the material thus exploding in every direction erases the surface hierarchy.”

In 1956, Reigl took part in the group exhibition Tensions at the Galerie René Drouin in Paris, alongside Jean Degottex, Simon Hantaï, Claude Georges and Claude Viseux. In the same year, she began working with the Galerie Kléber in Paris, which was directed by Jean Fournier. The gallery presented three solo exhibitions of Reigl’s work in 1956, 1959 and 1962.

Judit Reigl and the Centre de dominances series (1958–1959) 

Reigl’s ongoing gestural exploration of painting led her to create the series Centre de dominances [Centre of Dominance], in which her gestural marks swirled in a rotating movement as if siphoned towards the centre of the canvas. Describing the series, Marcelin Pleynet wrote: “On the face of the canvas, the centre presents itself as a maelstrom, abyss, vortex, delving into the depths of the work, moving and opening, forming and coming undone while constituting itself. Thus, it establishes a space in which the centre is everywhere and the periphery, nowhere.”

Towards the end of the 1950s, Reigl began working with the Galerie Van de Loo in Munich, which presented three solo exhibitions dedicated to her work in 1958, 1960 and 1966.

Judit Reigl and the Guano series (1958–1965)

 Following on from the Centre de dominances series, Reigl explored a series of paintings called Guanos that emerged out of “objective chance”. In order to protect a new parquet floor, Reigl covered it with canvases that she had rejected as “ruined”. The painter explained: “On these impromptu floor coverings, I worked, walked and poured pictorial materials that ran, saturated and were trampled underfoot. As time went by, these excremental rags slowly became stratified layers, like the guano that comes from the isles of Latin America.” These canvases, on which layers of material had accumulated, became a new field for the artist to explore. The original canvases and paintings of the pieces had disappeared, leaving new surfaces, encrusted or worn down, that were ripe for what Reigl described as a “backwards operation”. Reigl scraped away layers of material, reworking her pieces in what was a new, fertile ground for creative expression.

Judit Reigl and the Écriture en masse series (1959–1965)

 In parallel to Reigl’s Guano series, the artist explored another new creative process. Working with a particular black pigment used in the building industry that dried slowly and in depth—over several years—Reigl developed a new way of creating paintings. Discussing the works in the Écriture en masse [Mass Writing] series, the painter said: “Starting from a white background, I put clumps of paint on the canvas using a flexible and rounded blade, or, sometimes, a simple wooden stick, “raising” them up from the bottom to the top of the canvas, covering the lighter colours underneath with this black pigment. I could tell immediately whether it was successful or a failure, in which case, there was no way of correcting it.” The long creative process meant that Reigl would work on several paintings at the same time.

In 1961, the Kunstverein in Freiburg im Breisgau presented a solo exhibition dedicated to Reigl’s work. In the 1960s, Reigl was involved in two major events in the art world in the United States, taking part in the Guggenheim International Award in New York in 1964 and the Pittsburgh International Exhibition of Contemporary Painting and Sculpture at the Carnegie Institute’s Museum of Art in Pittsburgh in 1967.

Judit Reigl and the series Homme (1966–1972) and Drap, décodage (1973)

In February 1966, anthropomorphic forms began emerging from Reigl’s automatic and abstract writing, giving rise to human torsos. This development, initially taking place independently of the artist’s own will, was then encouraged and even accentuated by her gestures. Reigl explained: “At first imperceptibly, then more and more consciously after 1970, I tried to intervene, to underline the emerging aspect of these erect bodies.” The result was the series Homme [Man], which was characterised by spontaneous figures emerging from the canvas in ascending or descending movements.

From the Homme series, the Drap, décodage [Decoding] series was born. Reigl began stapling transparent cloths onto the man torsos of the Homme paintings starting in February 1979. These veiled, hidden bodies created new ground for the artist to explore. Discussing the works, Reigl said: “On these negated bodies, I take note of or, rather—touching, marking—I undo the forms, the momentum, the dynamism of the writing, their tension. I break them down and decode them, suppressing their black frames, that black carcass of protective masses, which had been essential until now, with its affirmative thickness and its absolute contrast against the white background. I paint on these cloths, only to exhibit the back. I pass through a stage of complete failure.”

In the early 1970s, the artist Judit Reigl worked with the Galerie Rencontres in Paris, which presented her first solo exhibition in 1972 and would go on to organise four more solo exhibitions dedicated to her work. In 1973, Reigl presented works at the art exhibition L’Espace lyrique : L’Action Painting, L’Abstraction lyrique et leurs environs at the Abbaye de Beaulieu-en-Rouergue—a former Cistercian abbey transformed into a centre for contemporary art in Ginals, in the southwest of France.

Judit Reigl and the series Déroulement (1973–1980) and Suite des Déroulements (1980–1985)

Exploring the Déroulement [Unfolding] series, which she began in 1973, Reigl employed a purely gestural approach free from any formal constraints. In the artists own words: “That’s what Déroulement is about: an action over time that seeks to find that stationary source that allows movement to exist.” Reigl executed the series in two phases: first fixing unstretched canvases all around the studio and then moving around the space, tuning her steps and gestures to the rhythm of a piece of music and letting the brush soaked in glycerophtalic paint sweep and brush over the canvas.

Classical music—especially music by Johann Sebastian Bach—was a source of inspiration for Reigl, particularly for her Suite des Déroulements [Unfolding Continued] series. Created in the early 1980s, the new series cultivated an undulating style of writing. The artist named this new writing L’art de la fugue [The art of the fugue].

From 1982 onwards, the Suite des Déroulements series took on a new form. Reigl mixed metallic powders into the paint, creating new surface effects. She also transformed the way the paintings were to be read by presenting them in a vertical position. No longer writing, the painter’s lines seemed instead to take on the forms of “fantastic architecture” in the words of Jean-Paul Ameline. Reigl went on to add: “The source of the series that came after Déroulement is also that of music and poetry, which is to say, the elementary gesture, rhythm, timing, pulse.”

The two series Déroulements and Guano were presented in Paris at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in 1976. Between 1977 and 1978, Reigl took part in the touring group exhibition 3 villes, 3 collections : Marseille, Grenoble, Saint-Etienne : L’avant-garde 1960-1976, which travelled from the Musée Cantini in Marseille to the Musée de Peinture et de Sculpture in Grenoble and the Musée d’Art et d’Industrie in Saint-Etienne, before finally showing at the Musée National d’Art Moderne – Centre Pompidou in Paris. In 1978, the Musée de Peinture in Grenoble held a solo exhibition dedicated to Reigl’s work: Judit Reigl, Peintures choisies, 1958-1978. Towards the end of the 1970s, two solo exhibitions of Reigl’s work were organised by the Galerie Yvon Lambert in Paris, in 1978 and 1979.

Reigl worked with the Galerie de France in Paris throughout the 1980s. The gallery organised several solo exhibitions for Reigl, including one highlighting her Suite des Déroulement series entitled L’Art de la Fugue, Peintures 1980-1982. In 1985, the Musée d’Évreux presented a solo exhibition of Reigl’s work.

Judit Reigl and the Entrée-Sortie series (1986–1988)

In Reigl’s Entrée-Sortie [Entrance-Exit] series, the artist questioned the painting itself within its formal parameters. In the series, Reigl used the saturation of her materials to achieve colour diffusion through the fibres of the canvas. No longer a question of movement, the works reached for what the artist described as an “architecturally stationary form”. Discussing the series, Reigl explained: “The stillness comes, but turns into expectation, as when it becomes a real burden, when one would push it beyond the possible. The painting becomes dirty, heavy with material, dregs, filth; I said somewhere excremental. It has become so difficult, pushed so far that suddenly, something emerges […] I have to get out of this—it is a question of life and death.” 

In 1986, Reigl took part in the Venice Biennale, showing works at the International Pavilion. In 1991, the artist’s works were presented at a touring exhibition devoted to André Breton, which showed at the Musée National d’Art Moderne – Centre Pompidou in Paris and then at the Museo Nacional, Centro de Arte Reina Sofia in Madrid.

Judit Reigl and the New York, 11 septembre 2001 series (2001–2002)

After working on several series depicting human forms emerging in weightless states—Face à… [Face to…] (1988–1990), Un corps au pluriel [Body in plural] (1990–1992), Hors [Out] (1993–1999) and Un corps sans prix [Priceless body] (1999–2001)—Reigl created the series New York, 11 septembre 2001 [New York, 11 September 2001]. Produced between 2001 and 2002 in response to the tragic aerial attack that took place in New York, the series focused on the falling body as its subject. Discussing the televised broadcast of the attacks, Reigl noted: “Occasionally suspended in stills, the bodies seemed, for an instant, to rise and then float in an indeterminate space.”

In 2010, the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Nantes presented a Judit Reigl retrospective, based on a selection of 80 works by the artist. In 2017, following a special loan, the Musée des Abattoirs in Toulouse presented an exhibition dedicated to Reigl’s work. Similarly, following a purchase of works from the New York, 11 septembre series and a donation of five paintings by the artist, the Musée d’Art Moderne de Paris presented its permanent collection of works by Judit Reigl in 2018 under the title Judit Reigl: Le corps est le plus parfait instrument et le plus tragique. In 2016, Reigl’s first solo exhibition at an American institution was presented at the Allen Memorial Art Museum in Oberlin, Ohio, in a show entitled Judit Reigl: Body of Music.

From the late 2000s onwards, Reigl’s works were included in several notable group exhibitions both in France and abroad. In 2007, Reigl’s works were featured in the touring exhibition Gestes, Signes, Traces, Espaces (Modern French painters in the Public Collections of Normandy) at the Musée André Malraux in Le Havre, the Ancien Évêché in Évreux and the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Caen. The artist’s works were presented at the exhibition Le geste et la matière | une abstraction “autre” Paris, 1945-1965 at the Fondation Clément in Martinique in 2017. Reigl took part in the thematic exhibition Préhistoire, une énigme moderne at the Musée national d’Art Moderne – Centre Pompidou in Paris in 2019.

Reigl also took part in group exhibitions highlighting the work of 20^th-century women artists, including: elles@centrepompidou, which was presented by the Collections of the Musée National d’Art Moderne – Centre Pompidou in Paris (2009–2011); La vraie vie est ailleurs ! Femmes artistes autour de Marta Pan : Simone Boisecq, Charlotte Calmis, Juana Muller, Véra Pagava, Judit Reigl at the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Brest (2019–2020); and Femmes années 50. Au fil de l’abstraction, peinture et sculpture at the Musée Soulages in Rodez (2019–2020).

Reigl’s works were exhibited in notable exhibitions abroad, including: Epic Abstraction: Pollock to Herrera at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York (2018–2020); Artistic License: Six Takes on the Guggenheim Collection at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York (2019); and Everything is Rhythm: Mid-Century Music and Art at the Toledo Museum of Art (2019).

The Judit Reigl Endowment Fund

 Created in 2014, the Judit Reigl Endowment Fund (Fonds de dotation Judit Reigl) works to promote awareness of and public access to Judit Reigl’s work, as well as research in the field. It put together the Judit Reigl Archives, which it manages, and supports the organisation of exhibitions and publications concerning the work of Judit Reigl in France and abroad. The Judit Reigl Endowment Fund is also responsible for the catalogue raisonné of Judit Reigl, for her entire body of work: paintings, drawings and collages.

Judit Reigl died on 6 August 2020 in Marcoussis, Essonne, where her studio was based from 1963.

© Diane de Polignac Gallery / Astrid de Monteverde
Translation: Lucy Johnston