Claude Tétot is a painter in search of unexpected harmonies. He embraces a visual language of complementary contradictions--negative space becomes an expression of form; solid areas of color are balanced by energetic markings and precise patterns; concrete elements like hard edged lines, grids, and geometric shapes are juxtaposed alongside expressionistic elements, like gestural brushwork, smudges, drips and stains.
By exploring the enigmatic unity expressed by these apparent disharmonies, Tétot is examining what is meant by chaos and what is meant by order. He is asking us to contemplate what is absent and what is present; or what is active and what is neutral. The strange poetry of his compositions declares that things are not always what they seem, and that there is beauty even in discord.
