Curated by Marie de Brugerolle

Guy de Cointet (1934–83) is perhaps known less for his work than for the influence it has exerted on other artists, like Catherine Sullivan, Mike Kelley, Paul McCarthy, and William Leavitt. The latter three contribute to the catalogue for de Cointet’s first European retrospective, no doubt to discuss the permission they gained from his cryptic yet undeniably Pop performances and objects. Emigrating from his native France to the US in 1967, de Cointet put in time at Warhol’s Factory before settling in Los Angeles’s Little Tokyo. There, this insider/outsider devised a new phonetic system that would form the backbone of all his ensuing artistic activities, including many of the roughly 125 films, drawings, paintings, and reconstructed set designs gathered for this show.

— Jan Tumlir