Christian Dotremont 1922-1979

1922  Christian Dotremont was born on December 12, in Tervuren  ( Belgium ). His parents were writers, contributing regularly to magazines, and journals.He began writing at an early age, and in 1940  A collection of his poems called Ancienne éternité came to the attention of a group of Belgian surrealists to whom he rapidly became  attached.

1941  While he was staying in Paris, he met Picasso. He came into contact with the French surrealist group and took part in the creation of a surrealist magazine called La main à la plume
1943  His poem  la Reine des murs Queen of the walls,  was heavily criticised , and as a result he set up his own publishing house Le serpent de mer , The sea snake . In order to avoid doing  compusory work in Germany, he had to hide away in the Fagnes.
When he returned to Brussels, he published three numbers of les deux soeurs the two sisters  magazine. He also founded the Belgian revolutionary surrealist  group, which issued one bulletin but no others thereafter.
1948  In collaboration with the poet Joseph Noiret, and the artists : Asger Jorn ( Danish ),  Karel appel, Constant and Corneille ( Dutch ) he founded the experimental CoBrA movement,  leading the way to a new style of creation, bringing together painting, poetry, and cinema, distancing itself from surrealism, as could be seen in their exhibitions and publications. He wrote a number of texts for " CoBrA " , " le Petit CoBraA " and " le Tout Petit CoBrA ".

1951  He obtained a scholarship from the Danish Institute, and went to Denmark to study Viking Art and Popular art. He contracted tuberculosis, and was admitted to the Silkeborg sanatorium  Denmark) at the same time as Asger Jorn. As a result the group was disbanded, although some members continued to meet, and the Taptoe gallery in Brussels held a Dotremont exhibition called CoBrA après CoBrA in 1956.
His autobiography, retracing his life as a poet and artist, was published by Gallimard in 1955; It was called  la pierre et l'oreiller  the stone and the pillow  and remains the only existing biography.
1956- 1962  He went to Laponia three times and did word-paintings with Alechinsky, Jorn,  Corneille for Vues, Laponie. Views, Laponia. The whiteness of the snow inspired him to do his first Logoneiges: Logogrammes snow logos drawn in snow or ice: logoglaces, ice logos  which are "like exagerated writing" according to Dotremont, when he was trying out different media, without worrying about proportions .

1961 To prove that Cobra was still active, Dotremont signed an ink painting by Alechinsky, with a title and colouring by Asger Jorn, using the first letter of the Danish, Belgian and Dutch capitals, after the syllables which make up CoBrA:  le grand Pum.
1962  He organised the CoBrA et après ( et même avant ) exhibition at the Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels
1963-1967  He started the Strates  magazine, in French and all about France. It was, for him, an experiment in typographism.
1966  On the 11th July he wrote a letter Michel Butor. This was the start of a lenghthy correspondance which ended only at his death.

1968-1971  His condition gradually worsened. After a period in the Rose-de-la-Reine  sanatorium in Buizingen, he decided to move into the  Pluie-de-Roses pension in Tervuren.
First exhibitions: at the Maya gallery in Brussels and the France gallery in Paris where collaborative works by Dotremont and Alechinsky were shown.
1972-1973  He took part to the XXXVI th Biennial Events of de Venice
1976  He published  logbook  a collection of logogrammes done between 1972-1975  After a trip to Ireland the same year, he published logbooklette. He collaborated with Pierre Alechinsky on  "une peinture à quatre mains " for the metro station Anneessens in Brussels.

1979  On the 20th August, Christian Dotremont died in Buizinguen and was buried in the condrusian village cemetery in Maredret 
1982 Alechinsky organised la première rétrospective the first retrospective  exhibition  where  both paintings and writings were shown, at the Wallonie-Bruxelles centre in Paris. He also wrote the preface for the catalogue.