Les gestes malhabiles
(Clumsy gestures)

1955, dry point copper engraving, 18 x 11.1 cm
Final proof on Auvergne paper 32 x 24 cm
50 copies

In the immediate aftermath of WWII, the young poet and art critic Jacques Meuris showed great interest for the work of Gaston Bertrand and they became close friends over the years. In 1955, Meuris asked Bertrand to illustrate four of the sixteen poems that he had written at the beginning of the 1950s. This work represented an innovation for Bertrand in two respects: these were his first dry point engravings as well as his first (and last) collaboration as a poem illustrator. This provided him the opportunity to familiarize with the dry point technique which he later used to produce twenty-seven engravings.
In order to illustrate the first poem “clumsy gestures”, Gaston Bertrand divided his engraving plate into unequal rectangular areas filled with thin networks of parallel lines (horizontal, vertical, V-shape or cross-brace). This demonstrates his interest for geometric structures which were not, unlike for the majority of his works, derived from reality. The rectangles are crossed by three curved lines which enliven the overall static impression of the composition. This is an abstract evocation of the poem psychological atmosphere: “bars which stripe the horizon and cut the future into perfect and mathematical slices”, “beings trapped between the invincible walls of daily responsibilities”.