Philippe DEREUX (1918-2001)

Philippe Dereux was born in 1918 in Lyon. He expressed himself firstly by writing and he published articles in the imaginary journal L’enfer d’écrire (The Hell of Writing) in the editions of Henneuse in Lyon. He met Jean Dubuffet in Vence in 1995, which introduced him amicably to the work of materials in his L’ubac atelier. From 1959, he created assemblies of peelings, a work that he continued until his death in 2001. He taught in a middle school until his retirement in 1973. The artist kept a journal of Epluchures (Peelings), that he edited at Julliard “Le petit traité des épluchures” (The Little Treaty of Pellings) in 1966, XX years of peelings at Pierre Chave in 1981, “The wisdom of peelings” till L’oeuf sauvage (The wild egg) in 2001. 

“When I glue my peelings, I see them creating groups, attracting, repelling, I feel like the demiurge proceeding the creation of the Universe. A few of my titles translate and reflect this impression. A peeling is already, by itself, because of the vegetable or the fruit it comes from, its thickness, its shape, its color, something unique but then, ten, twenty, thirty peelings from the same source or from diverse origins make up a world, and a world that could be different if the peelings were glued otherwise.”

 *Extract from the book of peelings