Louis Cattiaux

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Louis-Ghislain Cattiaux (born August 17, 1904 in Valenciennes , Nord-Pas-de-Calais , † July 16, 1953 in Paris ) was a French painter and poet who almost completely gave up the practice of art in order to The Recovered Message or to write the clock of God's night and day , a spiritual work which, according to Cattiaux, is in the tradition of exposition of scriptures from different cultures and the "message", i. H. wants to renew the teaching handed down by the interpreters.

The rediscovered message can be understood and interpreted in a moral , philosophical , ascetic as well as in a cosmogenic , mystical and initiating ( hermetic ) sense.

Life

Louis Cattiaux was born in Valenciennes on August 17, 1904 . He grew up without parents and was raised by his big sister. In 1914, the siblings were evacuated to the Paris area and Louis lived from then on in the Hanley guest house . In 1922 he prepared his exam at the Arts et Métiers Paris Tech in Paris.

1928 traveled Cattiaux as an employee of a trading company to Dahomey but came after a few months back to the capital, where he increasingly devoted himself to painting. He began to frequent the art and literary circles of the Parisian avant-garde at the time . In 1932 he married Henriette Péré. The couple opened an art gallery called Gravitations in honor of the poet Jules Supervielle , which was located on the ground floor at number 3 rue Casimir Perier and also served as the couple's apartment.

In 1934 the so-called “Transhylism Manifesto” was published, signed by a number of artists, among whom were Cattiaux Jean Lafont , the surrealist painter Pierre Ino , Erik Olson , Jean Marembert , the painter and writer from Switzerland, René Paresce , the surrealist painter and set designer Louis Coutaud , the sculptor Étienne Béothy and the poets Fernand Marc , Louis de Gonzague Frick and the aforementioned Jules Supervielle .

From 1936 onwards, Cattiaux directed his spiritual quest more and more towards alchemy , and in 1938 he wrote part of Le Message Égaré (The Lost Message), which later became Le Message Retrouvé (The Message Recovered). The first twelve chapters of the Recovered Message were published by the author himself in Paris in 1946. At this point he began to write his physics and metaphysics of painting .

In 1947 he began correspondence with the poet Jean Rousselot and René Guénon . Thanks to a review of the latter on The Recovered Message , printed in 1948 by the Parisian esoteric magazine Les Études traditionnelles , Louis Cattiaux got in touch with Emmanuel d'Hooghvorst , author of the book The Thread of Penelope . This event marked the beginning of an intense relationship between the two and with Emmanuel's brother Charles d'Hooghvorst, whom he met in May 1949. In 1951 the first article about The Recovered Message , written by Emmanuel d'Hooghvorst, appeared in the Swiss magazine Les Cahiers trimestriels Inconnues .

On July 16, 1953, Louis Cattiaux died suddenly of an illness. A year later, his poems Poèmes Alchimiques, Tristes, Zen, d'Avant, de la Résonance, de la Connaissance were published by Le Cercle du Livre. In 1954, excerpts from his essay Physics and Metaphysics of Painting were published in the Swiss magazine Les Cahiers trimestriels Inconnues (No. 9) and an article by Emmanuel d'Hooghvorst entitled The Prophetic Message from Louis Cattiaux .

painting

Cattiaux paints colorful, fantastic-surrealistic pictures, in which Christian symbols, elements of Christian iconography as well as from the treasure trove of tarot and hermetics are integrated, and in which fairy tale characters and mythical creatures cavort, reminiscent of the pictorial cosmos of Hieronymus Bosch .

Physics and Metaphysics of Painting

In 1946 Louis Cattiaux began an essay on painting. The title “Physics” should cover both the painting techniques (Chapters 1–8) and the other chapters (9–24 “Metaphysics”). Each theme is carried out under these two aspects, since, according to Cattiaux, “art is the union of patience and fantasy, rash and taste, improvisation and order, the invisible and the everyday, the spirit and value of color”. The confluence of technology mastered to perfection and the highest level of inspiration make the true artist.

"The Recovered Message or the Clock of God's Night and Day"

The "Rediscovered Message" is his main work. In 1946 Cattiaux published the first 12 chapters of the work with a foreword by Lanza del Vasto . Further chapters, which he called books, followed until his death in 1953. In 1956, the complete edition with an introduction by Emmanuel and Charles d'Hooghvorst appeared at Denoël .

The book is a collection of aphorisms or sayings written that are arranged in two columns; in some cases there is another saying in the middle. The book has 40 chapters written over more than 15 years. There are two epigraphs above each book , and each ends with two hypographs or concluding quotations taken from the scriptures of all peoples. In the aphorisms or verses, as Cattiaux called them, various, independent topics are dealt with, but at the same time they are intended to form a unified whole on the fundamental questions of humanity. The language used differs from that of other philosophical works because Cattiaux sees his work as inspired and can therefore formulate truths.

Because of its peculiarity, The Recovered Message is difficult to assign to a particular philosophical or spiritual trend, although the author felt particularly close to the Western Hermetic tradition.

literature

  • Louis Cattiaux: Physics and Metaphysics of Painting . Essay. Belgium: Beya Éditions, Belgium 2012, ISBN 978-2-9600575-5-3 .
  • Louis Cattiaux: The Recovered Message or The Clock of God's Night and Day. Herder, Basel 2010, ISBN 978-3-906371-14-6 .
  • Louis Cattiaux: Le Message Retrouvé ou L'Horloge de la nuit et du jour de Dieu, in Art et Hermétisme (Œuvres Complètes de Louis Cattiaux). Beya Éditions, Belgium 2006, ISBN 2-9600364-4-1 . (as paperback, ISBN 978-2-9600575-0-8 )
  • Jean Rousselot: Pintura y vida. 2010.
  • Raimon Arola: El símbolo en la espiritualidad contemporánea. 2011.
  • Raimon Arola (ed.): Croire l'incroyable ou L'Ancien et le Nouveau dans l'histoire des religions. Beya Éditions, Belgium 2006, ISBN 2-9600364-7-6 .
  • Louis Cattiaux: Florilegio epistolar. Reflejos de una búsqueda alquímica. Arola, Tarragona 1999, ISBN 84-95134-04-7 .
  • Louis Cattiaux: Física y metafísica de la pintura. Obra poética. Arola editors, Tarragona 1998, ISBN 84-95134-03-9 .
  • Jean Rousselot: in Physique et Métaphysique de la peinture. Les Amis de Louis Cattiaux, Bruxelles 1991.
  • AAVV: Esoterismo Cristiano . Obelisco, Barcelona 1990, ISBN 84-7720-150-1 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Cattiaux: Le fôret philosophique
  2. ↑ Arsgravis on Jean Rousselot. Archived from the original on September 27, 2011 ; Retrieved October 12, 2012 (Spanish).
  3. ↑ Arsgravis on Ramoin Arola. Archived from the original on June 21, 2012 ; Retrieved October 12, 2012 (Spanish).
  4. ^ Text by Jean Rousselot in French. Retrieved October 12, 2011 .

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Cattiaux, Louis
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cattiaux, Louis-Ghislain (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French painter and poet
DATE OF BIRTH 17th August 1904
PLACE OF BIRTH Valenciennes , Nord-Pas-de-Calais
DATE OF DEATH July 16, 1953
Place of death Paris