Magical Sense

Malcolm de Chazal
Malcolm de Chazal (1902-1981) - was born in Mauritius to French parents... To begin with he was a writer and a poet. His most notable books being: Sens Plastique and Sens Magique... W.H. Auden said of him that he was "...the most original and interesting French writer to emerge since the war." And André Breton hailed him as a surrealist.
In 1950, at the suggestion of Georges Braque, he began to paint... Better known in the French-speaking world - as an influential artist who stands alone in both his approach and his style - he is now becoming appreciated in the English-speaking world as a free-thinker who is deserving of his place in art history.
He was a surrealist, a mystic and an alchemist... Occasionally one glimpses similarities between his work and Van Gogh's, Matisse's and Derain's. He has been described as a post-modernist expressionist. Or, possibly he could be defined as a post-Fauvist. If that is what he was, then he was the essence of what that approach was supposed to embody in its purest form: an animalistic and feral interpretation of the world through bold colours, harnessing the emotions whilst rejecting a rigid representational approach to art.
But ultimately, and this is what is exciting about Chazal, he is unlike any other artist... or writer.
Magical Sense - is the translation by the author and poet Jean Bonnin of Sense Magique. Seven hundred and fifty-five aphorisms that look at nature, light, colour and sensuality in a unique way. This is one of Malcolm de Chazal's most significant works that should be appreciated for its beauty, originality and quirky otherworldliness.
A unique man whose painting and writing is finally beginning to get the appreciation it deserves.