Marcel Fleiss's Salon des Refusés at Galerie 1900-2000

In response to the exclusion of certain French artists from the Grand Palais exhibition 'La Force de l'Art,' Marcel Fleiss of Galerie 1900-2000 mounted a counter-exhibition titled 'Atopyques & atypiques' from April 27 to May 27, 2006, in Paris. The show featured fourteen artists who were not selected for the official event, presented as a 'salon des refusés' of the 'forgotten.' The selection included works by Ben (a calligraphy homage to Fluxus), Pierre Alechinsky (a drawing), Jean-Jacques Lebel (collages critiquing fascism), Joan Rabascall (collage), Frédéric Léglise (a painting celebrating young female bodies), Bernard Rancillac (installation), Fabrice Balossini (strange drawing), Philippe Jusforgues (collages), and letterists and Cobra artists Isou and Lemaître (paintings-writings and homage to Pol Bury). A highlight was Jean-Jacques Lauquin, described as the most overlooked of the forgotten, whose career began promisingly with support from critic Michel Tapié and gallerist Martha Jackson. Lauquin's work references Lacan, Barthes, Deleuze, Derrida, Kristeva, Jean-Marie Benoist, and Sollers, and has been studied by scientists, logicians, mathematicians, and philosophers. A 1989 symposium on Lauquin was held at the Centre Pompidou. The gallery exhibited a painting from his 'Série cosmique' (1960), previously shown at the galeria d'arte Tusconi in Milan in 1962, exemplifying his concept of 'antamorphism' or a 'new baroque.'