The question of gesture was central for Jean Degottex, influenced by the philosophy and religion of the Far East – Taoism, Buddhism and Zen – which inspired his reflections on the void and signs at the end of the 1950s. He continued to explore this idea of the void, which remained central throughout the following decade, in his series Horsphères, where the gesture, following long meditation, was thrown instantaneously on to the canvas. In the same way as Martin Barré’s spray paints, the gesture and its mark, simple but thought-through, were at the heart of his practice. In a different style to Barré, considered retrospectively as a pioneer of French minimal art, Degottex seems to have reduced painting to its simplest form of expression, close to far-eastern calligraphy.