Louis Pons Retrospective at Musée Fenaille, Rodez

A retrospective of fifty years of drawings by Louis Pons is on view at the Musée Fenaille in Rodez from July 7 to October 30, 2011. The exhibition, initiated by Benoît Decron (curator of the future Musée Soulages) and hosted by director Aurélien Pierre, occupies the basement of the archaeology and history museum, which houses seventeen statue-menhirs that influenced Pierre Soulages. Pons's ink-on-paper drawings, scratched with a pen, contrast with the stone works above. The invitation card image depicts globular multi-legged creatures emerging from or sinking into a tangle of lines evoking roots, viscera, and accumulated remains. Pons describes drawing as "a rat's work," and his pen digs into vegetal and animal debris. Birds with iron feathers and sharp beaks populate the underworld, alongside eggs and ovoid-headed nude figures. Pons cites Seghers, Bresdin, Louis Soutter, and Wols as his "four great priests." Born in 1927, Pons worked various jobs and spent time in a sanatorium; self-taught, he produced thousands of ink drawings and assembled objects into strange tableaux until eye problems forced him to stop drawing. Recent works conclude the show.